Daily Times

Almost 95 percent of the doctors and dentists who died of COVID-19 in the UK after contracting the virus treating patients have come from the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities, a new study shows.

An important study about the coronavirus-related deaths in the UK by three clinicians Simon Lennane, Emira Kursumovic and Tim Cook published in Health Service Journal shows that over 60 % of UK’s health and social care workers who have lost their lives due to the disease are from the ethnic minorities groups.

The new data also shows that more than half of the health workers died were born overseas, a hugely disproportionate figure as they only make 18 % of the NHS work force. Interestingly, none of the health staff were died in Intensive Care Units (ICU) where the most of seriously ill patients of Covid-19 are being admitted and is believed that they are protected by the personal protective equipment (PPE) more than the NHS staff working in other areas.

The research not only look at the doctors but also care workers, cleaners and porters working in different areas of the NHS and found that most of the deaths are in nurses and care work supporters. They are the people on the frontline and counted as half of all NHS staff. The study shows that out of 106 health and social care staff deaths, 64 were from the minorities communities, proportionally high considering that these communities make up of only 21% of the total NHS workforce.

According to the stats, 19 doctors and dentists who have died in UK, 95% were from the ethnic background, 44% of the NHS doctors come from the same group. More than half of the NHS workers who have died from the virus were from the London and south of the country, those areas were the worst affected, the study suggested.

Health campaigners are calling for further research to find out the links between Covid-19 and ethnicity as 18 % of all death and third of all the seriously ill with the virus are from the ethnic background.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the trade union for the doctors in the UK says these death would be saved by provided the staff the proper PPE’s. They also claimed that almost double the proportion of BAME doctors (64 per cent) have felt pressured to work in settings with inadequate PPE where aerosol-generating procedures are carried out exposing them to risk of infection. This compares with 33 per cent of doctors who identified as white.

Only four out of 10 BAME doctors in general practice said they had sufficient PPE for safe contact with patients with possible or confirmed COVID-19 or those with non-COVID-19 symptoms. A far greater proportion seven out of 10 doctors who identified as white said the same, BMA added.