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ARTP BAME Statement
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ARTP BAME Statement

22 May 2020

Families in the UK have been living with the devastating consequences of the worst mortality in Europe from COVID-19. Even before the peak of the pandemic it was evident that there were more vulnerable patient groups dependent upon age, comorbidities and ethnic origin.

In the UK it has become more evident, especially in healthcare workers, that Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff have had a higher mortality with severe COVID-19 infection. The evidence continues to evolve, but we know from the UK Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) that there is a much higher frequency of patients with BAME backgrounds requiring critical care than that expected from the overall population prevalence. The report is available via this link: https://www.icnarc.org/Our-Audit/Audits/Cmp/Reports.

The understanding of why this is the case isn’t clear, but some theories suggest that there are a larger number of ACE2 receptors in BAME populations – the target receptor for COVID-19.

Heads of all lung function and sleep physiology departments, if they aren’t already, need to be aware of increased risk to BAME staff in the frontline. Indeed, whilst all staff need to be protected from COVID-19, we have become used to shielding and making safe choices to protect all our staff by careful use of PPE and other infection control measures.

NHS England has raised this issue as of importance enough to issue specific guidelines, available via this link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/blog/note-for-all-bame-colleagues-working-in-the-nhs/

The British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) have also produced a Recommendations on the Use of Hijab in COVID-19 Clinical Settings guidance document, which can be found here: https://britishima.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BIMA-COVID19-Hijab-Statement.pdf

In light of this, ARTP reminds all heads of service to risk assess your staff, including those staff who may say they don’t need an assessment, document their procedure in line with their Trust guidelines and to act accordingly. As a collective we will overcome COVID-19 as it becomes endemic in the long term.

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