Fury as NHS library sign bans 'smelly' Indian food before bosses apologise
An NHS boss has been forced to apologise after a sign warned people not to bring Indian food into a library because it's "very smelly".
The printed notice was placed next to computers in the York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust study space before being quickly removed on February 16. A photo of the sign was shared on the social media site X, formally known as Twitter. It read: “Please do not bring any food any food into the library space. Especially not samosas, pakoras or filled chapatis as they are very smelly.”
Head of HR Polly McMeekin, posted an apology claiming the sign had been taken down. She added: “Thanks for flagging. Agree totally unacceptable. Thankfully removed yesterday by York and Scarborough Hospitals NHS Library team as soon as they discovered it. Really disappointing and not in line with York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals behaviours at all.”
Many users responded to the post criticising the need to specifically mention food of Indian origin. Prof Nitin Shrotri, a consultant urologist and Vice Chair at the Centre for Race Equality in Medicine, wrote on X: “Most people are nice, a few are naughty and very few are really nasty. I hope whoever put this up gets called out. It was totally uncalled for.” NHS Psychiatrist Raja Ahmed joked: “That’s my retirement plan. To open a Pakora and Samosa stall in front of a big university hospital in the UK.”
Dr Partha Kar, the diabetes consultant at Portsmouth Hospital, said that the sign had undone months of work towards equality at the NHS which lists nearly 16% of professionally qualified clinical staff as Asian.
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He told The Independent: “You can’t control some idiot putting up a sign like that. It’s silly and you gain nothing out of it - all you gain is people’s aggravation. The trust responded to me saying it was unacceptable it had been taken down. So I’m presuming that it wasn’t an accident and someone from the trust put that up."
He added that the idea of not bringing food into the library is "absolutely bang on the money", but said when singling out certain foods "it becomes a problem". He said fish and chips, for example, give off just as strong of an odour as the Indian foods mentioned.
Dr Kar, however, said calls for the person responsible for the sign to be sacked - as some have said online - is "silly" but said if the comment was meant to be tongue in cheek it is a "really bad joke".
The Mirror has contacted York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for further comment.
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