Dr Amir Khan recalls Patients refusing to see him for being Asian

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Dr Amir Khan recalls Patients refusing to see him for being Asian

TV doctor Amir Khan detailed the racism he has encountered throughout his career.

Dr Khan, who appears on ITV’s Lorraine and Good Morning Britain, revealed that there have even been patients who refused to see him because he is Asian.

He had also received a “whole barrage of racist abuse” on social media.

Dr Khan is proud of his British-Pakistani heritage but he has faced prejudice like many other British Asians. He was born in Bradford to immigrant parents.

He shared: “I think anyone from a historically marginalised background has encountered some form of prejudice and racism and I have certainly encountered that throughout my life growing up and even now.

“I’ve had patients refuse to see me because I’m an Asian doctor.

“I’ve had comments made to me using the ‘P’ word when I’ve been growing up.”

Dr Khan said he also faces trolling on social media.

He continued: “I get a whole barrage of racist abuse about how I don’t understand British culture and British values, even though I’m very British.

“It’s sad, but you learn to live alongside it because it happens; micro-aggressions happening on a daily basis and macro-aggressions happening every fortnight at least.

“When you put stuff out there, it invites it in, which isn’t right, but it happens.”

However, it does not deter him from sharing his views:

“If I feel passionately about something I will say it as it is. I’ve said very politically motivated things. I didn’t agree with Matt Hancock being in the jungle.

“I didn’t agree with all the things we did around Covid and I was very vocal about that on Lorraine and on Good Morning Britain.

“For the past 13 years the country has been ravaged by this government and the NHS has been completely dismantled.

“I’ve been working in the NHS for 20 years and I’ve known the good times, but now it’s bad – bad for patients and bad for the people who work in it.”

Dr Amir Khan has written a children’s book titled How Families Are Made, which is about families and sex education.

He admitted that he learnt from his school friends rather than his parents.

Dr Khan said: “I grew up with six sisters and my dad died when I was fairly young – and we are a Muslim family.

“These kinds of conversations didn’t happen in our house.”

He added that the information he got from friends was incorrect and inappropriate.

His book is aimed at introducing children to facts about the evolution of family life before they were exposed to misinformation and inappropriate content online.

While it is aimed at six-to-nine-year-olds, Dr Khan said:

“It’s one of those debates that lots of adults and parents have: when is it appropriate to have a conversation with a young person about where babies come from?

“Every child and every family will be different when it comes to that.”

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