Socioeconomic deprivation and ethnicity inequalities in disruption to NHS hospital admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national observational study (25 November 2021)

Summary

This study in BMJ Quality & Safety aimed to determine whether areas with higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation or larger ethnic minority populations saw larger falls in emergency and planned admissions in England during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study found that Covid-19 did not have an evenly spread impact on NHS hospital care for non-Covid patients, with disparities corresponding to deprivation and ethnicity. Although it is hard to determine the mechanisms behind these differences, the authors argue that they could make pre-pandemic health inequalities worse.