The spectrum of ‘new racism’ and discrimination in hospital contexts: A reappraisal

SummaryIn keeping with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, all people have the right to the highest attainable standard of health. Despite the universal right to health, people of minority racial and ethnic backgrounds experience commonplace and significant unjust inequalities in their health and health care. A key reason for this rests on what might be described as ‘the illusion of non-racism in health care’ – an illusion that rests on the frequently articulated belief that ‘racism is not an issue any more’. Although there has been increasing recognition in recent years that race and racism have a particular, consistent and complex independent negative effect on the health and health care of racial and ethnic minority groups, racism per se still tends to be under-recognised and poorly addressed in health and nursing care domains. In this paper, it is suggested that a key reason racism in health care has been largely ignored is because of its ‘changing face’, making new and different forms of it difficult to recognise and manage. A key premise on which this paper rests – and also its ultimate conclusion – is that the problem of racism (to be distinguished from ‘culturally insensitive’ and ‘culturally incongruent’ care) needs to be unmasked and managed so that those most at risk of being discriminated against on racialised grounds can rest assured that when in need, they will receive the equitable, safe and quality care they are entitled to receive.