Anger as ‘woke’ NHS is now offering £100,000 contract for ‘anti-racism’ consultancy service

NHS bosses are offering a £100,000 contract for anti-racism consultancy services, MailOnline can reveal.

The tender – dubbed ‘woke’ by critics – was placed by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), which manages the blood supply and organ donation in Britain.

The successful bidder will “intentionally embed inclusive and anti-racist behavior throughout our organization.”

NHSBT wants a ‘solution’ that includes topics such as ‘racial equality, social justice, civility, cultural intelligence and active spectatorship and inclusion’.

Critics denounced the six-figure spending on “woke waste” and called for “every penny” to go to primary care.

Cash-strapped hospitals are considering scaling back operations this winter to balance the books, despite waiting lists at a record high.

But NHSBT argued that hiring an anti-racist consultancy would help tackle the backlog by boosting the organisation’s credibility with ethnic minority Britons. It also comes amid allegations of years of racism within the agency.

A spokesperson said: ‘This project will help deliver better primary care and reduce waiting lists, especially for patients from minority ethnic backgrounds.

‘Our staff must be able to encourage more donors from ethnically diverse backgrounds to donate blood, organs and stem cells.

‘This means we can give more patients the best treatment that saves and improves their lives.’

NHSBT claims that encouraging donations from minority groups would reduce the waiting list for organ transplants and help prevent Britons with blood disorders needing emergency care, reducing overall pressure on the NHS.

In the application document, NHSBT wrote that the consultancy was part of their ‘vision’ to be an ‘intentionally inclusive and anti-racist’ organisation.

Anti-racism is a term that means actively opposing racism, rather than simply not being racist.

NHSBT added that the contract will be considered a success if their employees have a better understanding of ‘racial equality’, they are not disadvantaged by their characteristics and the recruitment policy is ‘intentionally inclusive’.

Tom Ryan, policy analyst at campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told MailOnline that the public would be appalled by the spending.

“Taxpayers are tired of seeing vital health care dollars being spent on these ‘right-on’ initiatives,” he said.

‘Now that the waiting lists are still terribly long, every cent must be spent on providing primary care.

“It’s time for healthcare to put patients first and crack down on ‘woke waste’.”

The anti-racism deal comes just weeks after ex-Health Secretary Steve Barclay wrote a letter to NHS leaders criticizing them for wasting taxpayers’ money on costly diversity officers instead of spending it on primary care.

He wrote: ‘The current live advertisements include jobs with salaries of up to £96,376, which is higher than the full-time basic salary for a newly promoted consultant.

‘I believe this does not represent value for money, especially at a time when budgets are under pressure as we work to clear the backlog created by the pandemic.’

Barclay was fired as health minister last week.

His successor, Victoria Atkins, has yet to make a similar commitment to crack down on woke waste in the NHS.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), one of the main funders of the NHSBT, said: ‘Taxpayers rightly expect value for money from every penny spent in our NHS.

‘That is why the NHS and all other bodies in the department are continually assessing whether their diversity and inclusion projects are providing value for money and considering ways to improve this.’

NHSBT has previously been accused of racist practices and attitudes.

In October last year, Melissa Thermidor, a marketing manager who worked for NHSBT, revealed she was suing the agency for constructive dismissal.

She claimed she was subjected to racist stereotypes, such as being a “shouty” and “aggressive” black woman.

Ms Thermidor also shockingly claimed that colleagues used the derogatory term ‘Tesco donors’ to refer to black people donating blood because colleagues were said to have said black people were most likely to shop there.

And in 2020, an independent report was leaked claiming there was ‘evidence of systemic racism’ at an NHSBT site.

The body’s six-figure cash splash comes as other parts of England’s healthcare system have been told they can cancel elective care appointments to balance their budgets.

A wave of unprecedented industrial action by staff created a £1.1 billion financial black hole as hospitals had to pay ‘premium rates’ to other workers to cover the strikers.

Health bosses had hoped to get the money back from the government, but Downing Street gave them just £800m.

This led to NHS England telling trusts to scale back routine care for the rest of the year in a bid to ‘reach financial balance’.

NHSBT is a special health authority sponsored by the DHSC, meaning it is separate from the general umbrella of NHS England and other national bodies.

The number of organ and blood donations from minority groups in Britain has lagged behind the national average for years.

The latest data from the NHSBT, for 2022/2023, shows that only 4 and 2 percent of deceased donors were from an Asian or black background respectively.

In contrast, people from Asian backgrounds made up 19 percent of the transplant waiting list, and for black British people this was 11 percent.

Blood donation also lags behind the need: only 1 percent of active blood donors are black.

This is despite the fact that 55 percent of black people have a blood type that can help treat patients with the blood disease sickle cell anemia, a condition that disproportionately affects black British people.

By comparison, only 2 percent of the general population has the Ro blood subtype that patients with sickle cell disease require.