The Isle of Wight NHS’s recruitment of an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Project Manager, on a salary of up to £52,000 a year, has sparked controversy with Elon Musk saying such roles are a result of the ‘woke mind virus’ in Government and corporations.
Attention to the Band 7 position was drawn on the social media platform X this week when prominent individuals began questioning whether such roles are needed, highlighting a job advert seeking an equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) manager to work across both the Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.
The successful candidate is expected to work with others to deliver equality objectives, coordinate the delivery and implementation of the EDI strategy and manage projects that support improvement in reporting for equality standards. Additionally, the candidate will challenge practice which results in disadvantage, discrimination, or offence and ensure initiatives are implemented to improve experiences for diverse groups.
Professor Karol Sikora, a retired oncologist of 50 years, has questioned whether or not the NHS on the Isle of Wight has better things to spend £50,000 a year on, such as a nurse.
A number of Island Echo readers have flagged up the ‘Twitter storm’, including former Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely.
One reader has said:
“This is an outrageous waste of money, we definitely do need more nurses. In fact we could do with a whole new hospital as the one we have is just not enough. A lot of patients are routinely sent to Southampton and Portsmouth”.
Now, a screen recording showing a whole host of EDI-related jobs in the public sector – nearly 9,500 in total – has attracted the attention of billionaire Elon Musk, Senior Advisor to President Donald Trump.
In response to the video featuring the Isle of Wight NHS’ job role, Elon has said that “the woke mind virus propagates like cordyceps through government and corporations”. His ‘tweet’ has been seen 5.5million times.
The woke mind virus propagates like cordyceps through government and corporations https://t.co/a9IX6oYDFn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2025
Former Government Minister Steve Barclay MP has also waded in on the conversation around EDI roles, stating that the current Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, has said he hasn’t reversed the previous instruction to scrap such jobs in the NHS.
Mr Barclay says money spent on such roles would be better spent on frontline care.
A spokesperson for Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust said:
“As two of the largest employers at the heart of our communities, we strive to ensure everyone has equal access to career opportunities and care. The EDI Project Manager plays a crucial role to ensure our services and employment are equitable for all and meet the diverse needs of our local communities.”
Nothing wrong with diversity, the island is
lacking in that area.
It is 2025 bring it on.
You pay for it then. Total and absolute waste of money, it’s not frontline care, it’s not value for money, someone in the hospital has a good mate who needs a job, so they created a make believe post for them, simple, happens all the time in the NHS. Isle of Wight NHS needs an independent investigation.
Yes it’s a shame a specific person is needed to make sure that in spite of the laws we currently have against discrimination, equality in all areas (that includes treatment) is maintained, but here we are. Hopefully one day it won’t be necessary and all people regardless of race, gender, sexual preference will be treated equally and without anyone batting an eyelid on another’s status. After all, it’s got absolutely nothing to do with them, has it?
You are right about it’s an who you know place for
employment, that is why so many useless Numpty’s
work there and healthcare on the island is poor.
Thank the lord for Pompey and Soton Hospitals,
the island needs mainland expertise.
Time for devolution.
Totally agree with you again, just think of all our taxes going to pay for a bunch of useless workers who do absolutely NOTHING
How many other jobs like this are on the Island? Has anyone bothered to count and put numbers against it?
DEI is a complete lie and falacy. 52k for a person that does what? Creates more problems by segregating and what is the purpose? What power can this person have? So lets break it down. Diversity you would think means anyone and everyone but what it really means is putting people in a role that cannot do a role based on race or even mental/physical status instead of skill/training. Equity means that everyone should be equal and given a chance which sounds good on paper but refer to diversity as equity means hiring of people that you dont have in your business or in the US its called affirmative action meaning that if you have 10 people your hired and they are all white you need to fire some and hire a percentage of “other” categories. Inclusion is about making an environment safe for the diversity and equity group which again sounds nice but what it really means is forcing people regardless of religions or moral beliefs to accept anyone regardless of how bad they maybe at their job. There are already laws to protect people so DEI is an excuse to enforce woke policies and many places are figuring this out. Why would you make laws to protect people and then create laws to push special groups . This is not to say that dei hasnt helped people but it certainly hasnt helped the majority of people and never will
Bit of a tenuous, manufactured, journalistic link there. I don’t think the musky man actually singled out out the the isle of wight job advert as the headline banner suggests.
This is disgusting, the money should be spent on front line services to try to give islanders the health service they rightly deserve instead of this woke crap being forced on us by a vociferous minority
What business is it of Elon Musk’s? He represents no one in the UK – indeed he has not been elected to represent anyone anywhere. No one here is remotely interested in his views. I doubt he was referring to the Island specifically but whatever he was talking about is simply irrelevant.
Another pointless and unnecessary and grossly overpaid non-job, taking money away from front-line services. I hate to agree with Musk, but he does have a point about this nonsense.
So, there are actually people on the Island who think that Elon Musk is talking sense on this matter? If ever there was evidence of a need for this post here, that is it. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if the Island is ever going to catch up..
I bet that this American pain in the ass does not even know where the Isle of Wight is, let alone his own country.