BMJ Report Accuses Several UK Medical Universities of Racism

A British Medical Journal report “Academic Performance of Ethnic Minority Candidates and Discrimination in the MRCGP Examinations Between 2010 and 2012: Analysis of Data,” claims that MRCGP examiners discriminate in the exams of Asian, Indian and Black doctors compared to white doctors. According to the authors, General Practice Professor Aneez Esmail and Biostatistics Professor Chris Roberts, medical universities have a bias when giving out their MRCGP examinations.

Today, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) has filed a legal case against UK’s Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and the General Medical Council (GMC) for the MRCGP examinations biased against minority ethnic candidates. This legal case puts medical practitioners minorities in the UK on the spotlight.

Esmail and Roberts’  report showed that Black and minority ethnic graduates trained in the UK were likely to fail than their white UK counterparts in their first attempt at a clinical skills assessment exam. Black and minority ethnic candidates who trained abroad also had a greater likeliness to fail in the exam. The likeliest to fail are minority candidates who did not train or study in the United Kingdom.

According to the lawyer of BAPIO, Attorney William O’Neill, should BAPIO win the case, it will mean good quality medical graduates from universities regardless of ethnicity, which would give the NHS the boost it needs to provide quality medical service.

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