Leading cancer specialist Professor Karol Sikora has launched a scathing attack on NHS spending on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff, questioning their value for money and impact on doctors’ workloads.
Speaking on GB News, the renowned oncologist demanded evidence of DEI staff effectiveness within the health service.
Prof Sikora asked: “What’s the evidence that [DEI staff] do any good whatsoever? I’m an oncologist, a cancer specialist. If I want to prescribe an expensive cancer drug, we have to have it approved at the highest level, by NICE.
“It’s an organisation that decides what we can prescribe and what we can’t based on evidence.
The renowned oncologist demanded evidence of DEI staff effectiveness within the health service.
GB News
“There’s no evidence that these people are doing a single jot of good to anybody, either diverse or otherwise.
“With medical students, the selection process is pretty rigorous. It’s difficult to get into medical school, whatever their diversity. These people have succeeded, there’s no problem with them. So why spend on this? It’s ridiculous.”
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He explained: “Every year I have to do a diversity exam. You have to watch a video and you can’t do the multiple choice questions unless you’ve seen the video.
“So what you do, you get two computers, and you do your emails while the video is playing, and then you do the obvious multiple choice questions.”
He described the test as comprising 30 questions with five answers each, taking approximately half an hour to complete.
The questions include basic ethical scenarios, such as whether people of different racial groups should be treated differently.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned that diversity drives in the health service have gone too far
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He fumed: “Obviously they should be treated the same. If they’ve got cancer, the treatment is the same, whatever colour, creed, whatever you are.”
This comes as Health Secretary Wes Streeting warned that diversity drives in the health service have gone too far.
Streeting criticised “some truly misguided actions being taken in the name of equality, diversity, and inclusion,” arguing that they were hindering progress.
The Ilford North MP acknowledged that tackling these issues was a political battle he was prepared to face, but emphasized the need for support from the profession as well.
Streeting told the BBC: “Sometimes there are some really daft things being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion, which [have] undermined the cause.
“For example, there was one member of NHS staff who was merrily tweeting a job ad online and saying part of her practice was anti-whiteness.
“I just thought: what the hell does that say to the bloke up in Wigan who’s more likely to die earlier than his more affluent white counterparts down in London?
“We’ve got real issues of inequality that affect white working-class people. The ideological hobby horses need to go.”