Yvonne Coghill: The evidence on race discrimination in the NHS can no longer be ignored

Data collected under the Workforce Race Equality Standard proved that BME staff have a worse experience in the NHS than their white colleagues. Now the standard is entering a new phase, focused on helping organisations to implement change

Black History Month 2017 will mark the anniversary of my 40th year in the NHS.

I started my nurse training at Central Middlesex Hospital (CMH) in 1977, and remember it as if it was yesterday. I arrived in London from Bristol fresh faced and enthusiastic, determined to be the best nurse ever.

The senior lecturer at the school of nursing was Mr Adigun, a proud Nigerian, and there were a lot of people from the Caribbean working at the hospital.

It wasn’t until years later that I learned that many of the central London hospitals that had rejected my application had