NHS racism claims dismissed by health minister
The government has rejected some of the findings of a report alleging institutional racism in the health service.
The report was commissioned after the death, during restraint, of schizophrenic patient David Bennett, a black patient under the care of Norfolk mental health trust.
Health minister, Rosie Winterton, said that the government was looking at its policies towards the issues raised in the report.
“We have got a very clear strategy for how we want to deal with this and the vast majority of the recommendations we have accepted,” she told Channel Four news.
But Ms Winterton said that the government was still reviewing the three-minute limit on the restraint of patients who are in a prone position.
The report, published this week by Sir John Blofeld, said minorities were given insufficient mental health care facilities and that many black people felt victimised and marginalized by the NHS.
