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Health Discrimination in the NHS

Kings College NHS Trust (Caldecot Clinic) Racist directors should be fired | 05.09.2005 15:46 | Anti-racism | Health | London

NHS whistleblower fired. Two years ago 55-year-old Jamaican specialist nurse Milton Hanson was fired by his employers, Kings College NHS Trust after he spoke on Power Jam radio and told listeners that black men at the sexual health clinic where he worked had their penises probed by white nurses until they bled and howled in pain.

Racism and injustice in South London

Two years ago 55-year-old Jamaican specialist nurse Milton Hanson was fired by his employers, Kings College NHS Trust after he spoke on Power Jam radio and told listeners that black men at the sexual health clinic where he worked had their penises probed by white nurses until they bled and howled in pain.

At the time of his dismissal Hanson was an experienced sexual health nurse. He had been in the profession for 35 years. At that time he was working at the Caldecot sexual health clinic in South London where 90 per cent of the patients are black.

Said Hanson: "On several occasions a particular nurse. boasted to myself and other nurses that she would push the urethral probe deeper than necessary up the urethra of black males to cause them physical pain.

"Black patients were routinely called derogatory names such as 'crows', 'yardie criminals', 'monkeys', and 'breeders', among many other offensive and hurtful names. Black women were routinely left exposed on examination chairs, unattended for long periods without covering. Staff would brag that this was to punish them for asking difficult questions about the waiting time."

Why would Milton Hanson, a bright Jamaican black-skinned man who obtained the highest training in such a greatly specialised field, and who took up appointment as project community liason nurse in May 2002, put all that to risk by blowing the whistle on what he saw as the racist attitudes of key persons working at the Caldecot clinic?

He could have seen and walked off and go about his business. He could have pretended that he heard nothing, sensed even less, caring only about his tenure, his respect in the white community and the security of his job.

He could have played hands-off and, had he done that, he would have had his job today with no troubles, no obvious concerns.

Hanson grew up in Priestman's River in Portland in the peaceful, laid back days of the 1950s.

The Department of Health should investigate how the Kings College NHS Trust is being run. The sadistic racist staff should have been fired, and the directors who allowed abuse of their patients. Since the Trust directors fired specialist Nurse Milton Hanson, they should lose their jobs, and new managers should be appointed to run the Trust.

www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/html/20050904t020000-0500_87612_obs_where_is_god_in_the_universe_.asp

Kings College NHS Trust (Caldecot Clinic) Racist directors should be fired

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  1. Racism, not sexism? — Joe