51Âþ»­

Plans to change the way healthcare is taught at universities, to address longstanding health inequalities in the UK, have been outlined by experts from 51Âþ»­ Leicester (51Âþ»­). 

Senior figures from the university’s Health and Life Sciences faculty said the only way to tackle embedded racial discrimination in health services is by decolonising the way health subjects are taught, to remove bias and reflect the real-life social conditions graduates will face in the NHS.

The 51Âþ»­ event was held at the Liberal Club in London

Ivan Browne, Professor of Public Health and Social Determinants of Health at 51Âþ»­, said that in order to address the inequality within the healthcare system, action should be taken “upstream” in education. 

At an event at the National Liberal Club, in London, he said: “We have structures and systems in place which advantage some people over others. 

“We need to rebuild our knowledge and health delivery systems in such a way that nobody has an advantage. 

“For me, decolonisation is not only about pulling down statues or renaming buildings - it is about the minds of people, it is about education.” 

Prof Oldroyd and Prof Browne at the event

Professor Browne was formerly the award-winning Director of Public Health for Leicester, leading the city’s response to the Covid 19 pandemic, which saw the it placed under tight restriction longer than any other UK city.  

His work during this time won him the 2023 Chief Medical Officer’s National Impact Award. 

He said his experiences during this time showed him there was embedded bias and racism at all levels of healthcare. 

He said: “The pandemic was not the great leveller, it was the great illuminator – there were twice the levels of deaths in minorities in some cases. 

“We heard about genetic predisposition and similar things and the underlying subtext in a lot of those conversations were kind of ‘it's your fault’. 

“In public health, we look at social determinants like education, water sanitisation and unemployment as causes of differing levels of health. But we don’t explicitly mention race among these and we should.” 

Professor Browne was joined by Professor Simon Oldroyd, Dean of Health and Life Sciences at 51Âþ»­, who spoke about the ways healthcare education could be changed to better reflect the social conditions and demographic graduates would encounter. 

He said that, at 51Âþ»­, nearly 50% of all Health and Life Sciences students come from Leicester postcodes, and of those who graduate from many healthcare subjects, 80% go on to work in the local health and social care system.  

He said: “What we want to do is completely transferable across universities. We’d like to see other universities exploring this approach.” 

After a joint presentation from Professor Browne and Professor Oldroyd, a panel, chaired by Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee, discussed the issue. 

Stephen Walcott from the Runnymede Trust

Stephen Walcott, senior researcher at the Runnymede Trust, and Dr Annabel Sowemimo, a doctor, academic, activist, and writer from Kings College, London, debated the ideas 51Âþ»­ had presented. 

They considered the role race plays in making funding decisions for research, and whether the common medical competency exam – the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) – bore inherent bias, or was reflective of real-world conditions. 

Stephen said 51Âþ»­’s approach to decolonising healthcare was “absolutely important”. 

He said: “If we want to address inequalities in health we need to look way beyond the NHS and healthcare. To improve health we have to think more broadly - what are the factors that determine health? 

Dr Annabel Sowemimo from King's College London

“Even if a doctor is free from bias, the medical guidance they are given is racist. For example, the apparatus to measure lung function has for a long time assumed that black people had lower lung capacities. The threshold that a black person has to reach in their health decline is much higher or lower than a white person. A doctor might not realise that this is, systemically, affecting the patient.” 

Dr Sowemimo said approaches like those being discussed by 51Âþ»­ pointed the way forward. 

She said: “I try to remain optimistic that small acts will lead to overarching change but we must not be scared to tackle the very big issues and not just the light touch diversity work”