Sajid Javid says there may be 'systemic racial bias' in health services around the world

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there may be a “systemic racial bias” in health services around the world.

Mr Javid, who has commissioned a review into possible racial and gender bias in medical devices, says that health disparities had been highlighted by Covid-19.

He said: “If you were from a BME background, a third of admissions were from (a) BME background in ICU units at the height of the crisis, and that’s more than double the representation of the population.”

Speaking to Trevor Philips On Sunday on Sky News, he said one issue was with a medical device called an oximeter – used to measure blood oxygen levels through the skin – which he said “in many cases, it was giving false readings” because of darker skin tones.

He said: “There are research papers already on this and no one did anything about it.

“Now, I’m not saying this was deliberate by anyone, I think it’s just it’s a systemic issue potentially, with medical devices and it may go even further than that with medical textbooks, for example.”

Mr Javid said non-white people could trust the NHS, but it was important to see what more could be done, “I think we can trust the NHS".

“But I think… of course we can and the NHS has been there for all of us for decades now and helped every community in Britain and that’s of course, something that is right.

“But we should always be looking to see what can be done to improve things and this particular issue about racial bias in medical instruments, it’s global.”