I am an NHS leader – but my mother still suffered from the hands of the health service

A high -ranking NHS leader criticized the health service and said that his mother received a “black service, no NHS service” when she died.

Lord Victor Adebowale, Chairman of the NHS Confederation, which Health Manager represents, described the death of his mother Grace as “unfounded”.

The 92-year-old died of alleged lung cancer in January, although he was only found after her death.

Lord Adebowale said that his mother’s missed diagnosis in combination with the sub -standard care that she lasted in the hospital for the last time had angered his family and looked for answers.

The peer, who was also on the board of NHS England for six years, believes that his mother’s experience illustrates greater problems.

“My mother would have wanted to tell her story because she is not the only one who confronted these problems.”

Lord Adebowale said that he would not describe the NHS racist, but instead believed that inequalities, especially racist inequalities, were confused.

“It is the reverse care law. People need the least health and care the least when they are black when they are poor when they are older and poor, there are inequalities in the system and people like my mother suffer.”

The intervention by such a figure is significant. Lord Adebowale has held leading health roles for more than two decades and also helped to found the NHS races and health observation mode in 2021 to try to combat inequalities of ethnic and minority patients in the healthcare sector.

NHS England said that it is working to improve access to services and tackle inequalities that would form an “important part” of the 10-year health plan, which is expected to be published next month.

One spokesman added: “Everyone – regardless of their background – should receive the best possible NHS care. But we know that there is much more to do.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Social Care repeated these comments and added: “Our deepest sympathy is Lord Adebowale for the loss of his mother.”

The mother of Lord Adebowale, who had three other children, emigrated from Nigeria to Great Britain in the 1950s and worked as a nurse in hospitals, in the community and in psychological health services.

He describes her as a caring, compassionate and intensively committed nurse.

“She believed in the healthcare service. They are people like her who help build the NHS, but when she needed it, it wasn’t the way it should be.

“She had dementia and has been in contact with the healthcare service regularly in the past five or six years. We cannot understand why she didn’t get any [cancer] Diagnosis. She was uncomfortable and painful – and has been for some time.

“She never received treatment for cancer – only after she had died did we learn that she had lung cancer.”

This was found during a post-mortem, and subsequent tests showed that this was the likely cause of death, he said.

Lord Adebowale added that his mother, when it was last taken to the hospital, was not easy to find her a bed. “The hospital was under strong pressure. In this type of situation, she didn’t want to die in the hospital.”

Lord Adebowale does not call the NHS service, which is involved in its care, and says that he does not want to separate the individual guilt because his mother’s experience was symbolic for a major problem.

“I just think that there are too many situations in which people like me look and do not get shadows from me. It was not the worthy death that we would have liked.

“I think she has a black service, no NHS service.”

Lord Adebowale, who was managing director of Turning Point for almost 20 years, a nursing organization that supports people with substance abuse and mental health problems together with learning difficulties before becoming Chairman of the NHS Confederation in 2019, in 2019 gave several examples of inequalities in the healthcare system.

He emphasized Research Younger blacks waited an average of 20 minutes longer than white people in A&E.

It also showed that for the poorest background, people were more confronted with routine treatment for a year.

Other Studies have suggested that people from disadvantaged communities have diagnosed cancer more frequently after visiting A&E – such diagnoses are more likely to be later when the chances of survival are lower.

He said while the promise of Additional money for the health service in the expenditure check this week Welcome that the inequalities alone would not be concerned.

“It is a systematic problem – I don’t want to blame my mother’s local person or the local NHS.

“What happened to her could happen everywhere. We have to tackle inequalities in the healthcare system and that requires leadership – not just money.”