Evidence from Healthwatch Birmingham presented to the government review ethnic disparities and inequality in the UK, focusing on four areas.
30/11/2020
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) |