Filipino nurses and community leaders have expressed frustration at Public Health England’s report looking into the disparities in the risks and outcomes of Covid-19 among the British population. The report was released on the 2nd of June.
The report confirms that people from Black and Asian backgrounds are more likely to die of coronavirus than those from White ethnic groups. However, it does not offer a definitive reason for this finding, saying that: “The relationship between ethnicity and health is complex and likely to be the result of a combination of factors.”
The report suggests that ethnic minorities have higher chances to acquire coronavirus because they are more likely to “live in urban areas, in overcrowded households, in deprived areas and have jobs that expose them to higher risk.”
One of the criticisms of the report is that it does not offer recommendations to reduce the risks faced by ethnic minorities. But what most has raised Filipinos’ concern is that they are lumped together with the category “Other Asian”.
No plan of action to tackle BAME deaths
“There are no recommendations and urgent actions that the government must do now to prevent more BAME deaths,” Mr. Fernando says in a Facebook message.
At least 50 Filipino healthcare workers have now died of the coronavirus , according to Francis Michael Fernando, a key figure within the Filipino healthcare sector in the UK. Tracking the deaths among the Filipino community is done informally: bereaved families and concerned friends send information to the Philippine Embassy or to Filipino community leaders for recording. These figures often do not tally with the figures in the media.
Demand for separate Filipino ethnic category
“Also, Filipinos must be recorded as an ethnicity or nationality as we have the most number of staff deaths in both health and social care. If other small countries are represented why not us? It’s about time our contributions to our society are recognised by the government and one way of doing is including us on the ethnicity category rather than being part of the ‘Other Asian’ group,” he adds.
Ethnicity is currently not recorded as part of death registration in Britain.
The concern for being recognised as a distinct ethnic category was shared by other Filipino nurses on Twitter.
Missed indicators
Crucially, the report says that data analysis has not taken into account the effect of occupation, comorbidities or obesity which are all risk factors.
In a Facebook message, Leonor Mondata, former practice manager at a London surgery, suggests that: “If PHE is concerned about more deaths on BAME being vulnerable, then they should not allow them to work as frontliners for Covid and deploy them to do other work.”
The UK government also says that people of BAME background are more likely than White British to be born overseas, which means they may face additional barriers in accessing services that are created by, for example, cultural and language differences.
The Office for National Statistics show that in 2019, there were at least 18,500 Filipinos working in the National Health Service (NHS). Media reports say that Filipinos have the highest number of deaths among all ethnic groups working in health and social care.
