Windrush Generation’s Contribution to the NHS
The VoW event on the connections between the NHS & Windrush's 75 anniversaries heard first from Lynette Richards Lord who's been in the UK for 64 years & after qualifying as a midwife & delivering 2000+ babies, became the first Black divisional nursing officer looking after midwifery in 3 hospitals, the South London, The Weir & St George's, before becoming the director of nursing, introducing personalized services for maternity care, a project used to inform the work of the US's Oklahoma Health Department.
Lynette is in no that the NHS was strengthened by the presence of nurses from the Caribbean but the discrimination was acute. She was one of the lucky few to qualify as a registered nurse rather than an enrolled one, the lower level assigned to most Black nurses, irrespective of prior qualifications.
Dr Doland Palmer, a professor of Immunology, felt that he stood on the shoulders of giants like Lynette & thought she was one of the reasons to celebrate Windrush Day amidst the controversy surrounding it. He described the experience of his mum who worked as an auxillary nurse, a term coined for cleaners who ended up doing so much more. E.g, the Caribbean nurses would bring food in for the patients and offer comfort. Dr Palmer praised the role of the Caribbean nurses, doctors, & technicians in the NHS who he says helped make it envy of the world. He is worried that despite our connections to the NHS, the community struggles to access reliable information on key health issues, often relying on community folklore, citing the increase in vaccine hesitancy during the pandemic.
Rev Charles Morris, Deputy High Commissioner of Barbados to the UK, remarked on the richness in the oral history stories of those who served the NHS which he says could not have survived without the Windrush Generation. He questions whether their role is truly acknowledge, and whether those, including the large numbers who made sacrifices during the pandemic, will ever be honoured. The treatment of the Windrush Generation angers him because the labelling is done to characterize people as being an other, and with that other, true acceptance and reward is void. But he says, the Caribbean islands are proud of what their nationals did to build the NHS and more so of the very advances roles being taken up by the young generation across all the health services.
Cllr Patsy Cummings moderated the event & said it was important to protect the NHS from those out to deprive it of resources. She chaired an informative discussion on the disparities in health outcomes across many measures & the need for the community to take action.
