A HEALTH leader has said that his mother suffered an “undignified” death after receiving a “black service, not an NHS service.”

NHS Confederation chairman Lord Victor Adebowale said that his 92-year-old former NHS nurse mother, Grace, died in January of suspected lung cancer which was not detected until after her death.

He told the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester: “I just think there are too many situations where people that look like me and shades of me don’t get the service.

“It was not the dignified death that we would have wanted for her. It wasn’t the death she deserved.

“So it makes me clear about the need to address the inequity. I think she got a black service, not an NHS service.

“So I have to address the inequity that still exists within the NHS, in terms of the experiences that people who look like me continue to receive.

“It is not acceptable that someone who looks like me, on average waits 20 minutes longer in A&E than white patients.

“To achieve an inclusive, equitable NHS we need an inclusive equitable culture from top to bottom.”

Lord Victor, who grew up in Wakefield, added: “I used the phrase ‘black service’… you only have to look at the stats — across all the major disease categories that we talk about, black people have a worse experience and worse outcomes — we’ve known that for years, I’m not saying anything new.

“My mother is an episodic example of a systematic problem.”

Ms Adebowale emigrated from Nigeria to Scotland in the 1950s.