The RCR cares passionately about diversity and inclusivity, ensuring that everyone – doctors, patients, colleagues and stakeholders – has equality of opportunity as well as being treated fairly and justly.
We are determined to do what we can to make a difference in our two specialities. We consider equality, diversity and inclusion in everything that we do, and have set up an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) task force to support equality, diversity and inclusion across patient care as well as in our membership and governance. We are keen to hear from doctors, patients and others to help the RCR consider how we can continue to best support EDI. If you would like to get in touch, email equality@rcr.ac.uk
Governance
The RCR seeks to ensure that the principles of equality and diversity are embedded within its activities and operations, and to this end a report is brought each year to Council. The College also performs an analysis of the membership of its boards and committees and how the diversity of these compare with the diversity of its membership as a whole. Read our latest equality and diversity report
Membership
We are committed to widening participation within the fields of radiology and oncology. We are supporting RadReach, a mentoring scheme for trainees devised by Dr Jade Scott Blagrove and Dr Anu Obaro, which is aimed at encouraging under-represented groups to apply to clinical radiology and clinical oncology. This has arisen on the back of work done by the Widening Participation Medics Network. A pilot will launch this year and we hope to build on it to understand further how we can better support doctors of every grade.
We are also supporting the Hexarad scholarship, which aims to provide mentorship and financial assistance for medical students in the UK. This annual award supports diversity in the field of medicine and radiology, and was founded by Hexarad Radiology in partnership with St. George’s, University of London.
We are keen to encourage as many members and Fellows as want to, to actively contribute to and directly support the work of the RCR. We have increased awareness of the available elected roles in novel ways and will build on this for coming elections. We are positively promoting diverse role models among our board and committee members and will continue to pursue this. We plan to maintain a hybrid model of committee functioning after the pandemic (both virtual and face to face) to encourage diversity in participation in RCR activities, allowing the experience of those with caring responsibilities or significant geographical challenges to be heard routinely. This year we included a specific EDI component in our membership survey, exploring your lived experiences. The data are being analysed and reviewed by the EDI taskforce to look at where we should focus our efforts to make a meaningful difference in the coming years.
Examinations and training
We collect data about the attainment of candidates from all ethnic backgrounds who take the FRCR examination, as well as the ethnic and gender makeup of the examiners that are used. Applications to become examiners and anonymised to reduce any risk of bias, and examiners receive training upon appointment including the requirements of equality legislation. The GMC publish the data we provide on examination attainment, but in addition on ARCP outcomes by age, gender and ethnicity, which is available nationally. In developing our speciality curricula over the last two years we have carried out equality impact assessments to ensure that the changes being made will not disadvantage trainees with any of the protected characteristics. We have also been reviewing attainment gaps, using resources from the GMC How to support successful training for BME doctors report.
Patients
We know that there is a higher incidence of certain cancers in different ethnic minorities and that understanding the prevalence of these cancers is hindered by a lack of accurate data; equally, patients in ethnic minority groups report more negative experiences of cancer care than white ethnic groups. To understand better the racial disparities in cancer care we have established a research project to explore disparities in cancer screening, diagnosis and outcomes, which is being led by two appointed Clinical Fellows, Dr Seyi Adesalu for clinical radiology and Dr Leroy Okonta for clinical oncology. This will allow us to better understand the factors involved, and produce evidence-based recommendations for key stakeholders, along with educational resources for healthcare providers. This follows the recently established model for LGBTQ+ patients.
Staff
We’ve been sending out resources, every month, around a specific topic to help educate people on the matter so they feel they’re able to participate in diversity and inclusion conversations. We’ve also done some work on psychological safety and accountability and the importance in getting the right balance to ensure people feel they have a safe space to talk about what can be sensitive topics.