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Showing results for tags 'Health Disparities'.
Found 803 results
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Content ArticleThis report by the British Red Cross highlights the impact of deprivation and inequality on high intensity use of accident and emergency services (A&E), and the additional cost and strain this puts on these services. It shows that people from the most deprived areas of the UK and people with mental health issues are more likely to be in poor health and are most likely to attend A&E frequently. The report calls for better support for people who frequently attend A&E because they feel they have 'nowhere else to turn'.
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Birthrights video: Speak Up, Speak Out (16 November 2021)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Maternity
This video by the charity Birthrights encourages women and birthing people to speak out when they experience poor quality care. It highlights the right to safe and appropriate maternity care that respects individuals' dignity, privacy and confidentiality and is given equally and without discrimination. -
Content ArticleAccess to healthcare is a basic right, but refugees and people seeking asylum in the UK often face barriers to accessing health services. The Refugee Council has released this collection of guides and films for health professionals, decision-makers and NGOs to address health inequalities experienced by refugees and people seeking asylum.
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National Maternity and Perinatal Audit lay summaries (2021)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Maternity
The National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA) has produced lay summaries covering three of its sprint audits into: perinatal mental health services maternity care for women with a body mass index of 30kg/m2 or above ethnic and socio-economic inequalities in NHS maternity care. The NMPA is a large-scale project established to provide data and information to those working in and using maternity services. The purpose of NMPA is to evaluate and improve NHS maternity services, as well as to support women, birthing people and their families to use the data in their decision-making. -
Content ArticleThis report was triggered by the Coroner’s report into the death of Evan Nathan Smith in North Middlesex hospital. Evan was a young man with his whole life in front of him. The mistakes made in his treatment leading to his early and avoidable death brought into sharp focus the lack of understanding of sickle cell, the battles patients have to go through to get proper treatment and the terrible consequences which can come about as a result. Following the publication of the Coroner’s report, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia held three evidence sessions, hearing from patients, clinicians and politicians. This report is a result of that evidence. The findings in this report reveal a pattern of many years of sub-standard care, stigmatisation and lack of prioritisation which have resulted in sickle cell patients losing trust in the healthcare system that is there to help them, feeling scared to access hospitals, expecting poor treatment from some of those who are supposed to care for them and fearing that it is only a matter of time until they encounter serious care failings.
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Content ArticleThis report from the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit assesses care inequalities using data from births between 1 April 2015 and 31 March 2018 across England, Scotland and Wales. The National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA) is led by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) in partnership with the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).
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Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in medicine to help with the diagnosis of diseases such as skin cancer. To be able to assist with this, AI needs to be ‘trained’ by looking at data and images from a large number of patients where the diagnosis has already been established, so an AI programme depends heavily upon the information it is trained on. This review, published in The Lancet Digital Health, looked at all freely accessible sets of data on skin lesions around the world. -
Content ArticleThis manifesto was created by the Community Rehabilitation Alliance, a collective of 50 charities, trade unions and professional bodies coming together to call on all political parties to ensure there is equal access to high quality community rehabilitation services for all patients.
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Content ArticleThis is the recording of a Royal College of Nursing (RCN) online event with actor David Harewood in conversation with mental health workers Simon Arday and Kojo Bonsu. Drawing on expertise from Black health care professionals and those with lived experience, the event explored what needs to be done to improve black people's experiences of mental health services. The event was chaired by Catherine Gamble RCN Fellow and Associate Director of Nursing Education South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.
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Global Drug Policy Index
Steve Turner posted an article in Data and insight
The Global Drug Policy Index provides a score and ranking for each country to show how much their drug policies and their implementation align with the UN principles of human rights, health and development. It offers an important accountability and evaluation mechanism in the field of drug policy. -
Content ArticleThis study published in The Lancet analysed patient comments gathered from freely available websites using the Patient Experience Platform. It examined comments to identify disparity in care experiences of people who identified as overweight or living with obesity across all NHS Acute and Specialist Trusts and all general practitioners (GPs) in England from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020. The study found that: across all regions, perceptions of the quality of care in the categories ‘Effective Treatment’ and ‘Emotional Support’ were significantly lower for people who identified as living with obesity compared to people who did not. people who identified as living with obesity in the negative behavioural cluster have a lower overall perceived quality of care score. barriers to quality care experienced by people who identified as living with obesity include speed of access, effective treatment, emotional support and stigmatising healthcare experiences.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Dr Meghan Leaver, cofounder of PEP Health discusses factors that may prevent people living with obesity and overweight disease conditions from accessing high quality care. She argues that the current NHS focus on healthcare equality should extend to improving access and satisfaction amongst patients living with obesity. The author makes the case that the NHS is not weight inclusive, referring to a recent study in The Lancet that showed that people who identified as being overweight had significantly lower perceptions of the quality of care they were receiving compared with those who didn’t. She highlights that the issue disproportionately affects people from lower socio-economic backgrounds and calls for policy that empowers people to live healthier lifestyles.
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Content ArticleThis nationwide study of over 1 million births in the English NHS between 2015 and 2017, published in The Lancet, has found large inequalities in pregnancy outcomes between ethnic and socioeconomic groups in England. The findings from Jardine et al. suggest that current national programmes to make pregnancy safer, which focus on individual women's risk and behaviour and their antenatal care, will not be enough to improve outcomes for babies born in England. The authors say that to reduce disparities in birth outcomes at a national level, politicians, public health professionals, and healthcare providers must work together to address racism and discrimination and improve women's social circumstances, social support, and health throughout their lives.
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Content ArticleThis report by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) sets out practical ways in which decision-makers and system designers can use the skills offered by occupational therapy to ensure all patients get access to the support they need. Health equity is one of RCOT’s priorities for 2022 and this report looks at the role of occupational therapists in widening access to care in the following areas: Primary care Housing Children, young people, and families Community rehabilitation Community mental health Criminal justice system
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Content ArticleRacial and ethnic disparities in health and healthcare continue to be widespread. Research has repeatedly confirmed that members of racial and ethnic minority groups in the US are more likely to experience disparities in care, including having an increased risk of being uninsured or underinsured, lacking access to care, and experiencing worse health outcomes for treatable and preventable conditions. This brief from the Emergency Care Research Institute (ECRI) outlines strategies for understanding, detecting and reducing disparities. It demonstrates that alongside the moral case for addressing racial and ethnic disparities in care, there are further benefits for staff and healthcare organisations.
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Content ArticleMany prisoners still struggle to access hospital services despite their significant health care needs, and early data suggests the pandemic has worsened access further. This report by the Nuffield Trust considers new evidence relating to pre-existing health conditions before prison, the use of remote consultation, different ethnic groups' use of health services and the early impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Content ArticleNursing is a predominantly female profession, yet sex and gender bias is rife. In a remarkably candid conversation, feminist writer Caroline Criado Perez, author of ‘Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men’, talks about how health care and health care research fails women, how changes are needed for women experiencing miscarriage – and what it means when medicine treats the female body as atypical and niche. Nursing Matters is presented by PNC Chair Rachel Hollis and PNC member Alison Leary. For this episode they are also joined by RCN member Leanne Patrick, who works in services for women experiencing gender-based violence and tweets on behalf of the RCN Feminist Network.
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Content ArticleIn this episode of the podcast Health on the Line, Professor Trish Greenhalgh, professor of primary care health sciences at the University of Oxford provides a scientific take on the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on primary care and scientific innovation. The world-renowned professor and trained GP also offers her view on virtual care, vaccine inequity and why innovation happens at times of turbulence.
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Content ArticleState of Care is the Care Quality Commission's annual assessment of health care and social care in England. The report looks at the trends, shares examples of good and outstanding care, and highlights where care needs to improve. It highlights people's experiences of care, including the impact of the pandemic, health inequalities, the challenges for people with a learning disability, the rising demand for mental health care, workforce stress and burnout, access to services, and the challenges for systems.
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Content ArticleThis guide, produced by the NHS Staff Council Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Group, is aimed at equality, diversity and inclusion leads, HR and learning and development professionals, and trade union representatives. It provides a framework of good practice for the delivery of mandatory NHS equality, diversity and inclusion training for all staff, This training should be an integral part of the organisation’s wider cultural change and organisational development activities. Planning and monitoring of training delivery should be done in partnership with trade unions and staff networks, this can also support wider staff engagement.
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Content ArticleThe report of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health chaired by Sir Donald Acheson was published in 1998. The purpose of the inquiry was to inform the development of the government's public health strategy and to contribute to the forthcoming white paper, Our healthier nation. The report made a number of specific recommendations on a range of areas relating to health, environmental and social factors including: introducing health impact assessments for all policies that were likely to have a direct or indirect impact on health and health inequalities. appointing directors of public health in every health authority. placing a partnership duty on the NHS executive and regional government to ensure local partnerships between health and local government.
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Content ArticleIn this blog for NHS Providers, National medical director's clinical fellow Cian Wade writes about his work with the NHS Improvement national patient safety team on reducing healthcare inequalities. Responding to commitments in the NHS Long Term Plan, this work focuses on two main areas: Determining the extent and causes of unequal experiences of clinical harm among different patient groups. This involved working with patient groups and system leaders to map patient journeys that demonstrate how and why some patients are at heightened risk of harm. Identifying areas for development that may help reduce health inequalities around patient safety. This second phase is in progress and involves gathering input on specific interventions that may reduce the risk of harm.
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Content ArticleLong waiting times and growing waiting lists for hospital treatment have been a problem for some time, but the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue and waiting lists have grown rapidly. This analysis of waiting list data by The King's Fund shows a clear relationship between longer waiting lists and deprivation, with those living in the most deprived areas nearly twice as likely to wait more than a year for treatment compared to those living in the least deprived areas.
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Content ArticleThis is the report of the Scottish Government's Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities. The report brings together thinking on poverty, lack of employment, children's lives and support for families and physical and social environments, as well as on health and wellbeing. It makes clear that the Scottish Government will not only respond to the consequences of health inequalities, but also tackle its causes.
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In most cases pregnancy and birth are a positive and safe experience for women and their families. This is the outcome that everyone working in maternity services wants every time, for every woman. But when things go wrong, we need to understand what happened, and whether the outcome could have been different. The death or injury of a new baby or mother is devastating and something that everyone working in the health and care system has a responsibility to do all they can to prevent. Following the publication of ‘Getting safer faster’ the Care Quality Commission (CQC) launched a programme of risk-based, focused maternity safety inspections involving a more focused in-depth assessment of relational elements such as teamworking and culture, staff and patient experience. Building on our previous calls for action, the CQC also sought to further explore the barriers that prevent some services from providing consistently good, safe care and to better understand the disparities in outcomes that exist for women and babies from Black and minority ethnic groups. This report presents the key themes from nine of those inspections alongside insight gathered from direct engagement with organisations representing women using maternity services and their families, including Five X More and local Maternity Voices Partnerships.
