Evidence from Healthwatch Birmingham presented to the government review ethnic disparities and inequality in the UK, focusing on four areas.

30/11/2020
By Healthwatch Birmingham
2020 Consultations

We presented evidence based on our investigation into health inequalities in Birmingham’s Somali community, demonstrating that people from ethnic minority communities often experience:

  • dismissive attitudes from healthcare professionals
  • very long delays in getting a diagnosis and a lack of referral to specialist treatment
  • cultural and language difficulties
  • racism and discrimination
  • lack of a diverse health and social care workforce that reflects the community it serves

We recommended actions to tackle inequalities in the health outcomes of people in different ethnic groups, including:

  • more opportunities for ethnic minority communities to be involved in decision-making processes in health and social care
  • delivering tailored and accessible preventative health information/messages is needed to improve knowledge of conditions (i.e. diabetes, asthma, and high blood pressure), risk factors, access to health services and improved lifestyle choices
  • employing knowledgeable interpreters/translators who are able to explain complex medical information
  • tackling  racism and discrimination, which impact access to health and social care services, quality of care and health outcomes
  • removing cultural and language barriers to information about  health services and communication with health professionals 
  • a more diverse health and social care workforce within services in communities with large ethnic minority groups
  • improving understanding of health and social care and its services in ethnic minority communities 
  • requiring healthcare services and professionals to have linguistic and cultural competence
  • moving away from grouping people under the broad term of BAME

Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in the UK Download File (pdf 181.07 KB)

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