Its not just in the medical field, though having said that there should be NO MORE AWARDS until the NHS is working again. Properly.

But its funny how when you're sick, lame or lazy you have a wealth of social benefits to claim from.

Sounds like a spill over into the rewards and recognition programme.

Lucy, Stevenage,

im afraid david rosin is way off the mark here
the old boys network is alive and kickin in the form of the A merit system which tends to favour the very same male white doctors.
lets get things in context here - at this level, consultant appointments are fairly meritocratic. the qoutas for ethnic minorities/female appointments are pretty conservative.
maybe mr rosin is saddened at the lack of golfing partners available to him these days......

John Thornton, Leamington Spa,

Like Hitler, you're are fighting Bolshevism. If only you knew.

Tim, Tampa, USA

i would like to its the reverse in the private sector. I think other ethnic groups dont get jobs. I am shocked in my company theres one black person who is the postman.I have worked for several high street banks and its shocking about the ethnic numbers. there are many Asian doctors i think they out number the other groups, i dont think its discrimination. When something goes wrong in one sector the media makes it look like all ethnic groups are overtaking white people. Dont forget about how many countries resources you have exploited and stoled. Are you going to keep exploiting groups that are disadvantaged? firstly the NHS takes my national insurance contribution and gives me such a horrible service. Doctors assume we are getting free service. I rather take that same national contribution money and pay that towards a private health care.

Sarah James , London,

NEKP

In view of the fact that once we qualify, we cannot practice outside the NHS without specialism or VTS GP training, We are Nailed to the NHS for Nearly 10 years . In 12 years I have avaeraged 110 hours a week. and my pay is still less than £50,000 BEFORE TAX.

AK Banerjee, Peterborough, UK

It is sad to see such a highly eminent consultant crib openly about not getting a platinum award. As a matter of fact anything can be blamed on discrimination gender/racial/reverse, but the truth probably lies in the fact that ' a bad carpenter blames his tools.' While Mr. Rosin's service for the NHS and his contributions to medical fraternity as a whole is great, I think it is incredibly sad that he is upset about not getting this award. I wonder if he is so sure of his status why doesn't he challenge the decision or appeal against it rather than blaming the system.

A Nair, Chelmsford, Essex

Judy (Liverpool) - you summed it all up very succinctly. As a white, English, middle-aged person one is subtly encouraged by this constant subtle and not-so-subtle social engineering to be ashamed of oneself.

As a child growing up in the '50s and '60s, I was brought up to be respectful, considerate of and courteous to EVERYONE regardless of colour or creed - per good old-fashioned English tolerance and concern for the 'underdog'.

Successive loony, zealot governments have actually ensured racism and created divisions where there were none by their hare-brained (and, I suspect, guilty self-exculpating) tinkering so disastrously with social processes.

Of course discrimination should not be tolerated in any civilised society - merit should be encouraged. But seeing as we have, as ever, a culture of megalomaniac-wannabee plutocratic rule instead of democratic meritocracy nothing will change.

alicet, hants, england

Ah....race based politics. Watch while we now divide up into different ethic and social groups.

Isn't multiculturalism wonderful.

Margaret, Berkhamsted,

Hmmmmmmm, just try being a white male patient... suffering from a male-related problem. If many male-specific medical problems were suffered by women, there wouldn't be a problem.

And a male doctor, living off the fat of the land, now tells us our sex is being discriminated against in the NHS? Where has he been living since 1948? Do you think his long-suffering male patients didn't know? Did he bother to ask them? Or are they just another statistic?

This is yet again a story about the producers rather than the consumers in the NHS. When are the white, male patients going to be treated at all, let alone with fairness?

Can we please sell the NHS and start treating people?

Julian Cox, London, England

Scrap the NHS, then let the market dictate how much people are worth, not by favours and government quotas.

roger, london,

It's been reported that the NHS provides the worst stroke care in Western Europe, and that NHS cancer survival rates are not only the worst in Western Europe, but worse than some Eastern European countries. With such dire performance, NHS doctors and consultants should be taking a pay cut with no merit rewards until such time as the NHS's performace as a whole improves significantly.

Robert, Luton,

"His 1998 research, published in the British Medical Journal, showed that white consultants were given 95% of bonuses despite making up just 74% of the eligible consultant workforce. Nonwhite consultants earned just 5% of bonuses despite making up 14% of the eligible consultant workforce"

White consultants make up 74% of eligible consultant workforce
Nonwhite consultants make up 14% of eligible consultant workforce
So 12% of the eligible workforce are neither white or nonwhite, but they are eligible for bonusses...?
Am I missing something here or does the NHS perhaps employ highly skilled immigrant chimps, and if so: How many bananas could one buy for 125,000 pounds ? Or do our distant cousins blow it all on wine tasting trips in the Bordeaux region followed up by visits to Tuscan fatorias, tasting the local produce and washing it down with Nebbiolo Rose or a fine Chianti

K. van de Kerke, Adelaide, Australia

Why call it reverse discrimination? It is racial and gender discrimination, plain and simple, and there is a law against it but our political elite think they are above the law.

R Mason, London, UK

This is not about money but a perception of an unfairness which is currently rife in our society as well as the natural desire of any hard working , exceptionally productive professional to receive an acknowledgement from his peers of his achievemnets and worth.

C J Hathaway, Billericay, UK

The system of merit awards for consultants should be scrapped. It is unfair, unjust and, as all consultants that I know will agee, misused. Like the jealousy generated by private practice it is a force for distrust and anger which divides the consultant body. and this can only be bad for the profession and patients alike.

Dr. Patrick J. Salt, Walsall, West Midlands

£112000 a year is good enough for any consultant without allowing a "Bonus"based on who you know, these are public funds and its being wasted on perks.

I say stop all bonuses and get on with the job, is £112000 PA a fair wage - of course it is.

peter, Aldershot, UK

"positive" discrimination? What poor English and contradictory and demeaning for ethnic minorities who will and should ask whether they have any capability or are they were they are just because of colour.

Richard, London,

After 37 years service in the NHS, I fully endorse Dr.Esmail's observations written above. Nonetheless, I reman opposed to discrimination on any thing other than merit for awarding these lucrative "prizess" for life.
Some nonrecipients of awards tend to manifest "sour grapes syndrome. Tough luck !

Abdul, Darlington, United Kingdom

So a Consultant who presumably already has a "Gold award" approx £75k on top of a £125k salary, (to be even considered he must be at the top of the consultant scale), is unhappy for not getting a Platinum level award, and we have a story because one of his mates told him it is because it is all the fault of the uppitty women and darkies.

Sorry but there has been loads of historic evidence of discrimination against, part time staff, women, and ethnic minorities when the system was based on old school ties. It is now much more transparent.

Dan, Oxford, UK

Well I can see a way to save the NHS £250 million, why are they (anyone white,black, brown, purple, blue) getting bonuses on top of being paid very well. When payrises for nurses, fireman have to be fought for.

Kris, London,

David Rosin was a former Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons. And he is actually one of THOSE white middle-aged male doctor's that has for a long time been ensuring non-White doctor's never get to the top level of managment, no matter how hard they work and how many obstacles are thrown in front of them. Britain doesn't deserve those fine outstanding people who saved the NHS in the 1960's and continue to be undervalued through institutional racism and blind bigotry.

John Saunders, Camberley, England

Please ask Dr Rosin why talented ethnic doctors fail FRCS examinations more than the native doctors? Also, those who passed the exams, fail to get a footing in Surgery?

Instead of giving unhelpful comments like these, the profession should look at its own track record.

Incidentally, I am not a doctor but I know lot of Indian doctors.

S Kunapuli, Wembley, Middlesex

Only by being competitive will the NHS survive and the quality will improve. Unforntunately this social behometh has become unwieldy with goverment meddling and its days are numbered.

Louis Blanc, Liverpool, UK

David Rosin is Jewish, and therefore an ethnic minority too. He was given the excuse of "not being black" perhaps they were just anti-semetic, and did not want to give him the award, as is all so common within the NHS and other areas. For him to state that positive discrimination has worked against him, is just pathetic.

Rebecca Roberts, London, UK

'I thought people became doctors out of some altruistic need, not finacial greed'.
'Put the 250M back into patient care. If consultants don't like it, they can go elsewhere' ...MGB Camarthen

So if we disuade highly capable people from entering medicine by reducing wages. hoping that they will work for peanuts, who will be treating us and our children when they become ill?

There are highly paid jobs in business, law etc and medicine needs to attract tallent - your post is extremely short sighted if not naive.

Gareth Jones, Walsall, W Mids

The NHS has been hijacked by the medical profession. Is there any other job on the planet(outside of politics)that gets you a six-figure salary regardless of your performance ?

F Kimbal Johnson, Louth,Lincs, uk

The blame for this is simply down to a long period under the loony left and the answer is very straight forward really, a change of government so we can all get back to some sound common sense politics, instead of all the baloney of the past, wasted, ten years!

D Case, Newquay,

Its that law of unintended consequences again isn't it?
No doubt the instigators of these policies are acting in what they believe to be a true and just cause. However, they have failed to see the consequences of these decisions - this bias means that the object of the exercise to award outstanding merit, has failed and the results is some sort of social engineering. It has often said that a good definition of an adult is that they can reasonably forsee the outcome of their actions.!The result is increased social tension and people achieving promotion and awards who are not fit. (should beregardless of whether they are black white lesbian homosexual or disabled.)
One wonders at the intellect of these people, who are normaly faceless and hide within committees. The result of their actions results in the exact opposite of what they intended. The results are to be seen everywhere in our public services. The real danger signals will be when these ideas emerge in the private sector

Diddly Do, liverpool,

When I worked for the DWP they were running a scheme to help ethnic minority staff advance in the Civil Service. Unfortunately the quality of the "advanced" staff wasn't very high and people began to ask whether or it was "positive discrimination" by the back door rather than assisting towards meeting "aspirational targets".

The department took these criticisms very seriously and acted at once...by making criticism of the scheme a disciplinary offence.

John, Crawley,

This just seems to be sour grapes by one guy who didn't get an award. Is there any serious statistical and qualitative to back up these claims? Reverse discrimination is as bad as (and the same as) discrimination, but isn’t this guy just suffering from the same hard luck that all of us have suffered from at some point when the less worthy appeared, to our eyes, to get something which we deserved (job interview, didn’t get that guy/girl…) and blaming it on the nearest controversial apocryphal factor? A factor which is conveniently impossible to disprove? One instance a trend does not prove…

Jack Edward Sharpe Higginson, Thiruvananthapuram, India

Apart from the specific issue of alleged discrimination against white doctors, a further question is that out of the £250 million, how much is used up in administering the scheme. What is the level of their salaries and bonus structure before the doctors get anything? Furthermore, what is their ethnicity and gender profile?

Brian Lee, Hadleigh, Essex,

You earn 112,000 punds a year, and you expect more from an anuual bonus for doing your job? This is utter madness on any level.

I thought people became doctors out of some altruistic need, not finacial greed.

And in any job, people are expected to to perform, to make advances and to better themselves (and by example - others), and most don't do this for a bonus.

Put the 250M back into patient care. If consultants don't like it, they can go elsewhere.

MGB, Carmarthen, Wales

Whatever happened to rewarding individuals for their ability? How does one stop this?

Dr Ian Burgess, Bristol,

What did you expect from your health system? Come to America where hard work and expetise still count.

JC Dugger, Aurora, CO

Positive discrimination. What is positive about Racism and Sexism?.

Colin, brighton, sussex

No wonder medical care is getting so bad in the UK. The NHS is rewarding mediocrity. Stop the get evenism the PC crowd is engaging in. Its only the patients that suffer.

Mation Tinsley, Brick, NJ USA

As a female ,minority , part time consultant and mother who has developed innovative clinical services nominated for prestigious national awards(created in unpaid time), year on year, it is still dissapointing to be rewarded with single bonus points, as white male colleagues (without nationally acclaimed awards) continue to get rewarded with 2 or 3 bonus points.
I simply do not agree that there is widespread discrimination against the white male medics!
Perhaps the extension of points to minorities and women and part timers, simply reduce the no of available bonus points for white male medics.

Shirine Boardman, Warwick, UK

I saw this when I was at university. Over 50% of the class were ethnic 'minorities' and over 50% were female. As a woman I expect an equal chance. No more no less. I don't expect to get a job because I am female but because I am the best person to carry out that job.

O Bown, I live in America now and my medical coverage isn't cheap. Doctors get paid more here because its costs around $300,000 to go through school. My GP earns around $200,000 a year but he runs his own practice. The doctors here take a risk when they go to school and also after when they run their own business. I get excellence and I understand it doesn't come for free.

I have a problem with the NHS paying a doctor $200,000 a year. The doctors in the NHS have a protected job, with minimal educational costs to cover. It costs a lot to train a doctor and I am still in shock that medical students don't have to sign contracts to stay with the NHS for 10 years when they get to university.

NEKP, Hoboken, NJ, USA

I invite all white male physicians to come to the US. You would be valued and respected for who you are -- not the color of your skin or your "plumbing." There's a medical doctor shortage here. It's more fair here than Britian (at least until Hillary turns us into a socialist catastrophe). You'll certainly earn far more money. Seriously, many Canadian doctors come here to escape the tribulations of socialized health care . The same is true with nurses and medical technologists. I'm sure immigration procedures for professions that are in demand are very streamlined and quick.

Bill, Arden, North Carolina

Now the white middle-class middle-aged male knows how women and ethnic minorities felt for years of discrimination.

Can't take it heh? The unfair are the first to squeal.

Shoukat, London, UK

This country is turning into a politically correct cloud cuckoo land.

edwina rigby, Blackburn, England

Here we go...Yawn

Marie, London,

"DETECTIVES involved in the cash for honours inquiry had their telephones tapped to find out whether they were leaking information to the media. "


Ah, so it is the medical profession that was the last to be infected. Well, well, who would have thought they would have been so resilient?

Edwin Thornber, Bucharest,

These claims just mirror exactly what is happening throughout Britain all the time. English and white must be the ethnic grouping most discriminated against. White English and in your fifties and you may as well go away and die.

Judy , Liverpool, england