A reported rise in racist abuse against healthcare workers in the United Kingdom has raised fresh concerns about the experiences of Nigerian and other African medical professionals who migrated to Europe in search of better career opportunities.
A survey by the Society of Radiographers (SoR) in the UK found that some NHS workers have been called “dirty foreigners” and “monkeys” by patients, while others have reportedly faced rejection because of their skin colour or ethnic background.
The findings have put a spotlight on Nigerian and other African health professionals who have left their home countries in recent years under the migration trend popularly known as “Japa”.
Paul Awah, a diagnostic radiographer based in Bedfordshire who is originally from Nigeria, said racist attitudes have become more openly expressed.
“It’s definitely got WORSE, people are more expressive now,” Awah said: “What used to be something people wouldn’t say, now the rhetoric has changed.”
Awah also said he had experienced patients telling him they could not understand him, despite English being the only language he speaks.
Other healthcare workers surveyed by the SoR described similarly troubling encounters.
One worker said: “Some patients always complain about the colour of skin of people attending them.”
Another radiographer reported that patients had described healthcare workers as “dirty foreigners”, while another respondent said: “I have witnessed a colleague being called a monkey by a patient.”
In another reported incident, a white man allegedly refused to allow a sonographer to scan his pregnant wife, telling the healthcare worker:
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