British Jews are suffering in silence and subject to “routine ostracisation” in the NHS (National Health Service), Lord Mann told the JC after government announced the recommendations of his report on antisemitism in it.
Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, visited University College London Hospital (UCLH) Trust on Tuesday morning along with James Murray, the health secretary.
There, they met with Jewish staff and other members of the equality and diversity networks and were introduced by Baroness Neuberger, the chair of UCLH, who paid tribute to Mann for his report.
Murray, who has been in his role for three weeks, also told those present that it was his “personal mission” to ensure “that we drive antisemitism and all forms of racism out to the NHS, both for staff and for patients”.
Speaking to the JC about his report, Mann said there were some extreme examples of anti-Jewish prejudice, which he had expected to uncover.
“I've been citing the example of the man who turned up at work – the only Jewish employee in his workplace – and found bacon fat smeared on his locker and didn't feel empowered to do anything about it. That's a huge problem.”
Mann said that many of those who experience antisemitism in the NHS fear speaking up about their experiences.
“People are suffering in silence more than vocally, and particularly when it's impacted them and their family. People don't want to be in the focal point, they don't want to be the newspapers, they don't want their names known, they don't want their children's names known, they don't want the experiences talked about and attributed to them,” he told the JC.
However, he said he did find people were willing to speak to him about what they endured.
Part of the problem Mann identified was what he described the “mundanity of the problem”. “What I've called the routine ostracization of Jewish people in the NHS, of staff, and of patients.”
He went on to say he had examples of fear of experiencing antisemitism leading to British Jews deciding not to use the NHS. “If people marginally decide not to do so, that can be catastrophic,” the former Labour MP said.
“Whatever reason or rationale people give to themselves, this is the heart of the issue. That's not good for the NHS, it's not good for the country, and because it's not good for the Jewish community.”
Mann denied that the NHS was in “crisis”, but said that tackling antisemitism is a problem that could be dealt with straightforwardly.
“If the NHS turns around that problem, then actually NHS could be a leader in the country on how to be inclusive and what that really means,” he said.
Part of his proposals include additional diversity training, with a focus on antisemitism, which senior managers and regulators were to undertake first.
The reasoning was so that antisemitism, and tackling it in the workplace, would be seen as the responsibility of the employers, “not palmed off outside to others” to ensure systems are in place to rapidly deal with it.
He went on: “Dealing with antisemitism ought to be no big deal in the workplace. It should be straightforward. We don't need to complicate it, but it does need to be done methodically, and the leadership at the top is critical to that, and that leadership must be there for uniform.
“In other words, wherever you are in the NHS, whichever part of the country, be you're a dentist, a physiotherapist, a doctor, wherever you are, wherever treatment you're going for, it should be the same.
"The standards should be a high standard, and we should be in a position of the Jewish community saying we are proud of our NHS. That's where the country needs to be.”
One of the headline-grabbing recommendations was a ban on staff wearing political symbols, something Mann was unambiguous about.
“If I'm in the dentist chair and the dentist is about to drill my teeth. I don't expect my dentist to have an ‘I support Palestine’ badge on, or indeed, an ‘I support Israel’ badge on. No political badges, no political symbolism.
“I expect my dentist, whatever their views on the world, simply to be accessible to me and to deal with me humanely and properly without the politics coming in. That's deliverable, I think that in itself will make a big change.”
Mann said the NHS should be free of any sort of “politicking” and also recommended that the NHS logo or branding not be used by staff while expressing their own political views either on marches or on social media.
“We're a free country, have your views, but don't pull the NHS into it and somehow suggest this is associated with NHS,” he said.
Will Mann be shy of speaking his mind if there is any delay to implementing his report or if it isn’t up to his standard?
“What do you think, and what do your readers think?”, he retorted jokingly, before saying he was “delighted” that the government had accepted the recommendations in his report.
He added that he wanted to help empower Jewish staff networks across the NHS to be better organised and help empower them.
“Part of my strategy is to ensure it's not me who's doing it, that the Jewish community in the workplace, or the Jewish community across the NHS, feel confident, have the support, have the skills that they do it.”
Health secretary James Murray spoke to the JC, thanking Mann for the report, commissioned last October by his predecessor, Wes Streeting, and the prime minister.
He said Mann helped expose “quite how shocking some of the incidents of antisemitism across the NHS are”.
“It also really brings to life for me how so many of the incidents of antisemitism are almost under the radar, don't get talked about, don't make headlines.
"People might think twice about reporting them, but they're very real. They have a very real impact on staff, a very real impact on patients, and Lord Mann has done a really important piece of work here in surfacing them and making sure we're all aware of what is going on in the NHS.”
He committed to implementing Mann’s “practical” recommendations very quickly.
Pressed on whether the recommendations in Mann’s report make it easier to sack staff for antisemitic behaviour, Murray emphasised that while in the past decisions had been referred to the regulators, responsibility was going to be placed on individual NHS trusts.
“This is the employer's responsibility to deal with, and we need to make sure that they are taking responsibility responding to antisemitic incidents and making sure that appropriate sanctions are taken”, he said.
After speaking to Jewish staff members before his interview with the JC, Murray said the meeting underscored why the government had accepted Mann’s reccomendations.
“I don't want any Jewish person who works in the NHS to think twice about coming to work, to feel worried about coming to work, to have anything other than total confidence in coming to work, and that's what happens when you have antisemitism, where it's, if it's low level, obviously sometimes the incidents are very public and very visible, but if you have it low level on a day to day basis, it can really undermine the contribution of Jewish staff members to the NHS.
“It's totally unacceptable, and I want to eradicate it from the National Health Service,” Murray said.
The health secretary also praised UCLH, which he said had been “leading the way” and, “showing how you can have a policy on uniform, for instance, which means that symbols expressing political views are not brought to work.”
Murray continued: “That really strengthens the foundational principles of the NHS, that any patient should never think twice about coming into the NHS.
"A Jewish person should never have any doubt in their mind that they are getting anything other than absolutely fantastic care from the NHS. The NHS was founded on principles of equality, of respect, of dignity for all.”
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