"The monitor in the OR beeped . . . and beeped. A nurse rushed in and found the patient on the operating table. The anaesthetist was just sitting there at his trolley.

"Despite the incessant alarm, he was in a sedated state. The nurse could not rouse him. She had to run around and find another anaesthetist to come in to manage the patient.

"Later tests showed that the doctor had taken two drugs that could be obtained only from the OR.

"He admitted his problem; his privileges were withdrawn and he was suspended. There was some talk of reporting him to the Bermuda Medical Council for onward reporting to the US practitioners database.

"The hospital reported him to the BMC but there was no onward reporting. The public does not know his name. He is said to be practising in the US."

Ombudsman Arlene Brock compared the above example, of a white doctor at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, with the one below, of a black doctor.

"Five years earlier, this doctor was arrested in his home jurisdiction for minor possession of illegal substances. The law there allows for rehabilitation and five years of monitoring, after which the matter is expunged from the record.

"This doctor's parsing of the application for admission to practise in Bermuda is that, as he had a clean record, he did not need to mention this incident on his application.

"KEMH administration confronted him at a public meeting about rumours of drug use. There were no concerns about impairment.

"He offered to be tested; there were mixed results (negative urine; positive hair follicle). The MSC accepted his offer to resign. However, a BHB executive meeting insisted on a hearing. As his privileges expired, the matter ended.

"The matter appeared in the newspaper the next day. Everybody knows his name. He no longer practises medicine."

Reflecting on the two examples, Ms Brock said: "If by now, the reader can discern that the doctor of (the first example) is white and the doctor of (the second example) is black, then it is no longer a guess. It is a pattern. I have met the civil burden of proof.

"Both doctors in the above examples tested positive for drugs, notwithstanding the mixed test results for the black doctor. The white doctor was severely impaired and put a patient directly at risk. Some interviewees believed his prior similar infractions were covered up.

"There were no allegations that the black doctor had ever been impaired or put patients at risk. Yet clearly he suffered the more serious consequence. His offer to undergo continual testing was not accepted by the BHB.

"Was this because he was black? Or was it because he did not go away quietly but protested his innocence? Black interviewees who raised this example are convinced that racism is at issue."