Individual hospitals within the NHS are having to cope with a number of competing priorities and policies in the context of difficult financial circumstances. One such policy is Equal Opportunities (EO). It is within the devolved system of individual trusts that the implementation of (EO) policy takes place. This ‘localisation’ of EO issues also applies to the tackling of racial inequalities in the field of job recruitment, training and promotion. The present study is an examination of EO policies and their implementation at a single National Health Service (NHS) hospital in relation to the recruitment, career development, training and promotion of female ethnic minority employees. Interviews were conducted with fifty ethnic minority females drawn from administrative, domestic and nursing grades; and a further twenty-two with hospital managers with responsibility for recruitment, training and promotion. A number of important deficiencies in the hospital's EO policies were identified by the female ethnic minority interviewees, particularly in respect of the recruitment process, experiences of career development and perceptions of discrimination and harassment. The article details the managers' attitudes towards and knowledge of EO policies in general and their responses to these deficiencies in particular.