RACISM and bullying are still prevalent in the state-funded Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust in Derbyshire, claims Prem Singh, the outgoing chairman of the organisation.
“You are going to have people with their prejudices, whether it is racism or homophobia” in an organisation as big as the NHS with an employee count of 1.5 million and it is “hard” to eradicate the phobias, he said.
He said that covert racism was more harmful psychologically than overt versions, such as calling someone names, since it “belittles” the subject and “eats away at you” and “makes you feel very lonely.”
His retirement ends a career in health care spanning 47 years. He began as a nurse in 1975, around the time he moved to the UK from Malaysia at the age of 18.
Since taking office more than nine years ago, Singh has presided over the Trust’s 4,500 employees and hospitals in Ashbourne, Belper, Chesterfield, Ilkeston, Buxton, and Ripley. He did this after giving up his ‘turban’, which he believed prevented him from assimilating into his adopted nation.
After consulting with his brother, who was at the time in Wales, he admitted that deciding to give up the turban was a difficult decision.
“I was made to feel like an alien, walking through town, people used to hurl words of abuse at me”, he told Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“I used to go back to my room at Ashgate and cry,” he said, adding “it was my challenge to integrate.”
Despite giving up “part of how I chose to show my identity,” he said he did not give up his faith or identity.
He said that the NHS had changed over time, moving away from a culture in which humiliating leaders was more prevalent than encouraging learning.
Although there “is a long way to go” for representation to be proportionate, the NHS vision has altered with the inclusion of more black and Asian executives, he added.
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