Senior health figure accuses NHS of racism over care given to dying mother

2 days ago

A senior figure in the health service has criticised it for deep-seated racism after his mother “got a black service, not an NHS service” before she died.Victor Adebowale, the chair of the NHS Confederation, claimed his mother Grace’s lung cancer went undiagnosed because black people get “disproportionately poor” health service care.The NHS’s failure to detect her cancer while she was alive shows that patients experience “two different services”, based on the colour of their skin, Adebowale said.His mother, Grace Amoke Owuren Adebowale, a former NHS nurse, died in January aged 92.He highlighted her care and death during his speech this week at the NHS Confederation’s annual conference as an example of “persistent racial inequalities in NHS services”.

His remarks prompted fresh concern about the stark differences between the care received by those from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds and white people.“My mum, who worked for many years as a nurse, died earlier this year at the age of 92.It was difficult.It was not the dignified death that we would have wanted for her,” Adebowale told an audience of NHS bosses.“It wasn’t the death she deserved.

So it makes me clear about the need to address the inequity,I think she got a black service, not an NHS service,”He castigated the NHS for not having done enough to improve care for black patients, despite mounting evidence of their much higher risk of poorer outcomes, including dying,Referencing “the experiences that people who look like me continue to receive”, he added: “It just hasn’t got any better,It is not acceptable that someone who looks like me on average waits 20 minutes longer in A&E than white patients.

”Speaking to journalists afterwards, Adebowale said: “Why did I do it [refer to his mother’s ‘black service’]? Because I’m sick of it not changing, like everybody else,My mum, I think, God bless her, I think she would have wanted me to say it,“[I am sick of] the disproportionately poor services that too many poor people and too many black people experience – that’s what I’m sick of,“You only have to look at the stats,You just see the stats across all the major disease categories we talk about.

Black people have a worse experience and worse outcomes.We’ve known that for years.I’m not saying anything new.My mother is an episodic example of a systemic problem.”Adebowale spent six years as a non-executive director on the board of NHS England and is a former chief executive of the addiction and mental health charity Turning Point.

He and his family are still trying to find out why their mother’s cancer was only identified by an autopsy after she died after arriving “in a poor condition” at A&E at a hospital in England he did not name.Not knowing at the time why she had died made her death even harder for the family, he said.His mother – who came to work in the NHS from Nigeria – never smoked, he added.“We’ve only recently found out [about the lung cancer].It made me angry, because how can you live for that long with something that a lot of people [did not spot]?“She died of lung cancer and by definition [a diagnosis being made] anytime earlier than when she died would have been good.

She clearly wasn’t picked up by any screening as far as I know.Her medical records I’ve seen show that nothing indicated that she had cancer anywhere.That was poor care, wasn’t it?”Research has found that:Black British mothers are up to four times more likely to die during pregnancy or within six weeks of giving birth than white mothers.Those of black and African or Caribbean origin are twice as likely to have a stroke, and younger, than white counterparts.Black African patients are two and a half times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white British patients.

Kate Seymour, Macmillan Cancer Support’s head of external affairs, said: “Stories like Grace Amoke Owuren Adebowale’s highlight the heartbreaking reality for some when it comes to accessing cancer care in this country.Research shows that people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in England wait longer on average to be diagnosed for several types of cancer.“It is categorically unacceptable that some people with cancer are having worse experiences simply because of who they are or where they live.”Prof Habib Naqvi, the chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said Adebowale’s remarks about his mother’s death should lead to change.“Sadly, black communities and families continue to experience many shortfalls in care, treatment and outcomes.

They often face additional trauma at multiple stages of the life course,” he said,“We thank Victor for the candour in sharing his personal testimony and expect these insights to lead to learning and action from healthcare providers to improve the quality of patient care,”NHS England has been approached for comment,

technologySee all

Disney and Universal sue AI image creator Midjourney, alleging copyright infringement

Disney and Universal sued an artificial intelligence company on Wednesday, alleging copyright infringement. In their lawsuit, the entertainment giants called Midjourney’s popular AI-powered image generator a “bottomless pit of plagiarism” for its alleged reproductions of the studios’ best-known characters.The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, claims Midjourney pirated the libraries of the two Hollywood studios, making and distributing without permission “innumerable” copies of their marquee characters such as Darth Vader from Star Wars, Elsa from Frozen, and the Minions from Despicable Me. Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The suit by Disney and Universal over images and video represents a new frontier in the raging legal wars over the copyright and the creation of generative artificial intelligence

4 days ago

‘They went too far’: Musk says he regrets some of his posts about Trump

Elon Musk has expressed contrition for some of his tweets about Donald Trump last week, in an apparent effort to retreat from an explosive falling out that has threatened to damage the Tesla boss’s business interests.Musk was by far the biggest donor to Trump’s presidential campaign, but tensions between the two erupted into public view last week and rapidly escalated, as the world’s richest man called for the president’s impeachment and mocked his connections to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in a series of posts.On Wednesday, Musk posted on X, the social network he owns: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”Musk’s public apology came after the tech billionaire privately called Trump on Monday night, the New York Times first reported, citing three people familiar with the matter

4 days ago

Meta to announce $15bn investment in bid to achieve computerised ‘superintelligence’

Meta is to announce a $15bn (£11bn) bid to achieve computerised “superintelligence”, according to multiple reports.The Silicon Valley race to dominate artificial intelligence is speeding up despite the patchy performance of many existing AI systems.Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, is expected to announce the company will buy a 49% stake in Scale AI, a startup led by Alexandr Wang and co-founded by Lucy Guo, in a move described by one Silicon Valley analyst as the action of “a wartime CEO”.Superintelligence is described as a type of AI that can perform better than humans at all tasks. Currently AI cannot reach the same level as humans in all tasks, a state known as artificial general intelligence (AGI)

4 days ago

UK students and staff: tell us your experiences with AI at university

The use of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools are becoming increasingly commonplace in UK higher education. A February survey of 1,000 students showed an “explosive increase” in use of generative AI in particular over the previous 12 months.With this in mind, we’d like to find out more about how AI is affecting students at university.How has AI impacted your studies? Have you used AI tools? Have you been suspected of using AI when you haven’t? What guidance have you been given by universities or tutors about using AI? Do you have any concerns?We’d also like to hear from university teaching staff – what is the impact of AI on students’ work? What are the challenges?You can tell us about your experiences with AI at university using this form.Please share your story if you are 18 or over, anonymously if you wish

4 days ago

As big tech grows more involved in Gaza, Muslim workers are wrestling with a spiritual crisis

Is working in big tech halal? Muslim workers are reckoning with the possibility that their jobs go against their religious obligationsBefore Ibtihal Aboussad was fired by Microsoft for protesting the company’s work with the Israeli military during a celebration of the firm’s 50th anniversary, she sent two emails.The first went to all of her colleagues. She appealed to their universal humanity and urged them to stand against Microsoft’s contracts to provide cloud computing software and artificial intelligence products to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).She sent the second to the “Muslims at Microsoft” email list. Its subject line read: “Muslims of Microsoft, Our Code Kills Palestinians

4 days ago

AI can ‘level up’ opportunities for dyslexic children, says UK tech secretary

Artificial intelligence should be deployed to “level up” opportunities for dyslexic children, according to the UK science and technology secretary, Peter Kyle, who warned there was currently not enough human capacity to help people with the learning difficulty.Kyle, who is dyslexic and uses AI to support his work, said the government should carefully look at “how AI can transform education and help us assess and understand a young person’s abilities into the future”.He spoke as the TV chef Jamie Oliver, who is also dyslexic, launched a campaign calling for improved teacher training on dyslexia and earlier screening of children to detect the condition sooner. About 6 million people in the UK are estimated to have dyslexia, which primarily affects reading and writing skills.Kyle told the Guardian he had felt “quite emotional” when seeing AI technology used to help young people learn with “incredible empathy, encouragement and knowledge”

5 days ago

politicsSee all