The PDA BAME Network has welcomed the NHS Race and Health Observatory (RHO) commission's plan to review the ‘unjust’ NHS ethnic pay gap.
The project is expected to last 18 months and is due to be completed in December 2026.
It will explore differences in pay, career progression, pension contributions, and the potential impact on financial earnings between staff from different ethnic backgrounds.
The review of the NHS ethnicity pay gap is the first-ever study on this issue within the NHS, and the RHO chief executive, Habib Naqvi, has described it as ‘long overdue’.
The project aims to make recommendations to the NHS that will allow it to reduce and eliminate inequalities.
Naqvi said, “Pay gaps are unjust, unfair and a public health challenge. We know a motivated, included and valued workforce delivers high-quality patient care, increased patient satisfaction and better patient safety.
"When operating at equal levels, doing equal roles, staff must receive the equal pay to which they are entitled, and should have equal opportunities for progression.”
PDA BAME Network president Lola Dabiri said, “The most recent data from the Workforce Race Equality Standard shows that the percentage of NHS staff from minority ethnic backgrounds rose from 17.7 percent in 2016 to 28.6 percent in 2024, so this review is particularly timely."
"This review should just be the start of others that ought to look at every contributing worker as a person rather than a number, also taking into account Locums as well as employees," she added.
PDA BAME Network vice president Ewura-Adjoa Yamoah said, “As a BAME student preparing to enter the healthcare system, I welcome this review and the impact it could have in driving meaningful change."
The PDA had earlier collaborated with The Equality Trust and found that locums from ethnic minority groups were paid approximately 10 percent less than those from white British groups.
