HOSPITAL chiefs have released a video encouraging black, Asian and minority ethnic staff to complete coronavirus risk assessments to protect them at work.

Featuring Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s (OUH) chief people officer Terry Roberts and Professor Meghana Pandit, chief medical officer, both from BAME backgrounds, it also seeks to allay fears.

In the video, which is targeted at all vulnerable workers at the John Radcliffe, Churchill, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and Banbury's Horton General, Mr Roberts said ‘a number of concerns’ had come up about completing the assessments ‘especially around BAME staff’.

He said: “There’s issues around ‘What will it mean for me?’, ‘Will I be discriminated against as a result of the risk assessment?’.

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Mr Roberts reassured staff medical information was completely confidential and a conversation would be had with a person’s manager if any ‘adjustments’ were needed.

He added: “Issues have come up about people thinking that their practice will be stymied, they won’t be able to work closely with patients or do the job that they have done in the past.”

He said a risk assessment ‘doesn’t necessarily’ mean that but that the trust would look at ‘all of the different options’.

Mr Roberts said this might mean rota changes or some targeted health and wellbeing initiatives but this would be worked out ‘between you and your manager’ and was all about the trust’s duty of care.

Professor Pandit said: “We all have to undertake risk assessments for Covid-19 and this is really so that we can remain safe, our colleagues remain safe and our patients remain safe.

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“Risk assessments are important because we have shown in our own testing of over 10,000 staff that we have an at least 11 per cent positivity among asymptomatic colleagues and we have also shown staff who are black, Asian or of an ethnic minority have a slightly increased risk of Covid-19.”

The figures, released last month, showed the trust's BAME staff, independent of role or working location, were at greater risk of infection than their white colleagues.

The overall figure for Covid-19 infection among such staff was 14.7 per cent, compared to 8.7 per cent for white staff. The figure was even higher for black and Asian staff at 17 per cent.

Professor Pandit added: “It is therefore extremely important that in order to remain healthy we need to undergo a risk assessment.”

She said she’d had her risk assessment and felt ‘better prepared and reassured’ while Mr Roberts said his own had led to ‘some minor adjustments’ but he was now able to work ‘free of concern’. A trust spokesperson said the video had been made to support its messaging to staff who follow OUH on social media.

Mr Roberts, said risk assessments for BAME and vulnerable staff were 'an absolute priority' for the trust and a 'vital' part of protecting both our staff and our patients.