As well as the COVID pandemic the other news item to touch all our lives has been the black lives matter campaign which burst on to our streets again after the murder of George Floyd. We in the NHS are incredibly proud of our ethnically diverse workforce and in the UK we have been very privileged that so many people from around the world have come to work for us. Many of our departments reflect this amazing ethnic diversity but it is true that in many of our hospitals that this diverse ethnic mix is not reflected at senior level.

For those who think we are untouched by racism here in the UK I suspect we have just looked hard enough. I suspect if we ask our black, asian and minority ethnic workmates if they have ever suffered racial discrimination every single one would say yes. We know the situation is chronic but that is not a reason to accept the status quo. 30 years ago my wife was an obs and gynae SHO and her boss was born in the UK but his parents were from Ghana. He drove a second hand BMW and every day on his drive to and from work in London he would be stopped by the police and would have to prove the car was his and undergo a drugs search. Because he worked at the same hospital he would be stopped by the same policemen day after day. 25 years later I had a brilliant Omani trainee. She wore a Hajib but otherwise western clothes. She was with her 3 children in a park when approached by a group of young white men calling her “rag head” and throwing her youngest son and his buggy into a pond. Fortunately, he came to no harm but at my insistence she reported the incident to the Police who said it was just “high jinks” and nothing to worry about. Neither of these stories are meant to be critical of the Police who do a difficult job but they do reflect the underlying attitudes that permeate our society. Now is the time to call a stop.

Before 2020 zoom was a noun or an adjective. Now it is a verb, I zoom, you zoom, they zoom etc. In the heady days before March a Zoom was a multicoloured ice lolly which looked a bit like a rocket. You could of course zoom through something or like my grand-daughter you could “zoom, zoom we are going to the moon”. Now all of us on Council and many others zoom maybe everyday. It is free as long as you only stay on line for 45 minutes. The BNMS has decided to buy a version so we can work a bit longer. However, zooming has led to a new etiquette. For example it is good to be fashionably late. If you try to join a Zoom call before the host it just will not work. Secondly what do you wear. Should you be formal or relaxed. The best thing is as long as you keep the camera pointed in the correct direction you can mix and match. Shirt, tie and jacket on the top. Surfing shorts and no shoes down below. If you are the host and you really fed up with someone you just mute them. It does not matter how hard they try to unmute or how energetically they wave at the host they are not going to get heard until the host wants to hear from them. On the other hand you have to remember you may be zooming from home and if you do not mute in time everyone will hear the tale of your 4 year old’s metre long poo as she rushes into your room to give you an update. Then there is the hair issue as lockdown progresses the nation’s hair situation is not good. For all of us have started to look as though we live in a 1960s style hippy commune. If you were the type of person who’s hair roots are a different colour from your other hair there is now a good 10cm of hair root colour. Before men think that is not a problem. Do we really want to see hairs growing from eye brows in every direction not to mention ear and nasal hair. Then there is the bald patch. Now many men are what we call “thin on top” Most men when they look in the mirror do not see this but leaning down to try and find the “leave meeting” button the all seeing computer camera sees all. The experts say we will all just have to learn to live with this pandemic for months ahead. If that is the case and there are no barbers or hairdressers we may decide that we can only Zoom with the video off

Where do you zoom from, indoors and your wall paper choice becomes a matter of debate. You could use the supplied backgrounds like a tropical beach which sounds great but Zoom seems to have a defect in its edge detection. I remember talking to a doctor in Australia who for some reason had palm tree eyebrows. There was a report of a poor lady who changed her face into a mouse face but was unable to change it back for the rest of the zoom call. Then there is the issue of band width. In our house you can only have 1 zoom on our broadband so if my wife is using that I have to use my mobile. However, the only good 4G signal is in the garden by the bird table. What is the etiquette of zooming and eating. We know we should not talk with your mouth full of food but what about zooming. I have seen people tuck into a full roast dinner on zoom, not good if you are hungry. My personal bug bear is people zooming from a sunny garden with a very large glass of red wine in hand!

Finally if you know someone who works in Nuclear Medicine who has done something truly extraordinary during the COVID-19 crisis and should be considered for an honour, please contact Charlotte Weston in the office who has an on line form you can fill in. we must have these completed by June 30^th so we can send to the cabinet office.

Keep safe.

Dr John Buscombe

BNMS President