An NHS team is to investigate management procedures at a group of hospitals after allegations of racism by a surgeon who resigned this year. Trust directors and doctors from outside the region will examine arrangements at the North East Lincolnshire NHS trust, based in Grimsby, in an unusual move prompted partly by the current drive against racism in the national health service.
The surgeon, who is not being named, came from an overseas post to work at the Diana Princess of Wales memorial hospital in Grimsby. He was involved in an internal inquiry which is understood to have turned sour amid claims of discrimination.
The Trent NHS regional executive said yesterday that the decision to send in the review team had been prompted by claims relating to "employment practice and disciplinary issues".
A spokeswoman said the team selected had particular expertise in racial and equal opportunities issues, and would look at all relevant policies and procedures.
A spokesman for the North East Lincolnshire trust said the surgeon had resigned during an investigation whose results had been passed on within the NHS. "If the review team is considered the most appropriate way forward, we will welcome any independent examination of our policies and procedures," he said.
An equal opportunities plan for the NHS was published by the government in July after surveys showing anomalies in the numbers of ethnic minority doctors and nursing staff at different levels within the health service.
The policy studies institute also recommended last month that General Medical Council staff and committee members should have racial awareness training after figures showed that doctors who had qualified overseas were the subject of 27% of patient complaints, but 54% of appearances before the GMC's professional conduct committee.
