This petition is calling for the reform of medical curriculums to educate students on how symptoms present differently in BAME patients. 

In light of recent events, the existence of racism within Britain is finally being given the attention it deserves. However, attention is not enough; actions must be taken across every British system. This includes the medical system, the NHS, and the institutions that educate their staff. Bias towards white patients is present in every part of our health care system and is costing people of colour their lives. 

As a medical student, I am taught to have a "patient-centred approach", but how can I achieve this when I'm only taught how signs and symptoms of diseases present within white people and not the other 20% of the British population? For example, the current medical curriculum doesn't teach us how to identify early rashes within people with dark skin. This results in a much poorer prognosis and higher mortality rate for people of colour, particularly black people when it comes to Lymes Disease or skin cancer. Similarly, we are not taught how to recognise cyanosis in dark skin, which may be contributing to the disproportionately high numbers of deaths of people from BAME backgrounds due to COVID-19 compared to that of Caucasians.

White normativity kills.

However, we can change this by reforming medical curriculums to be more informative of BAME specific diagnosis techniques. We can stop severe medical errors and negligence that arise from the current system and prevent many unnecessary deaths. Future generations of doctors can be educated in a way that provides BAME patients with the same standard of care that is given to white patients. 

Help the doctors of tomorrow save lives.