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Showing results for tags 'Health Disparities'.
Found 808 results
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Content ArticleThis article by the consultancy firm Carnall Farrar looks at the opportunity the newly established Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) have to improve health outcomes, tackle inequalities, enhance productivity and support broader social and economic development. The relationship between deprivation and health outcomes is well known and evidenced, and by working collaboratively, the NHS, local authorities and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations can address the wider determinants of health outcomes, starting with the impact of deprivation.
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Content ArticleThe Stroke Association's Saving Brains campaign aims to raise awareness of thrombectomy, a game-changing surgical treatment for stroke that many patients in the UK are currently missing out on. Thrombectomy can prevent further damage occurring to the brain in people having a stroke. It is a time-critical treatment and there is variation in access to the procedure across the country, In this video, stroke patients Karen and Phil talk about their experiences of treatment. Karen was able to have a timely thrombectomy and regained full mobility immediately following the procedure. Phil wasn't able to access thrombectomy due to the service not being available in his area at weekends; as a result, his recovery has been slower and more difficult.
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Content ArticleIn this article for The Times, Deborah Ross describes her negative experience of NHS maternity care during and after labour, and how this has put her off having more children. During her 72-hour labour and subsequent hospital admission, she was denied pain relief, did not feel listened to and was not informed as to why her baby had been transferred to NICU.
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Content ArticleIn 2021. the National Quality Board (NQB) refreshed its Shared commitment to quality, which describes what quality is and how it can be delivered in integrated care systems (ICSs). It reflects the ambition set out by the NQB in 2015: "We want improving people’s experiences to be as important as improving clinical outcomes and safety." This document provides an overarching context for work on improving experience of care as a principal and integral part of delivering safe and effective care. It sets out a shared understanding of experience and what the best possible experience of care looks like, and outlines key components for delivering the best possible experience of care: Co-production as default for improvement Using insight and feedback Improving experience of care at the core priority work programmes The NQB was set up in 2009 to promote the importance of quality across health and care on behalf of NHS England and Improvement, NHS Digital, the Care Quality Commission, the Office of Health Promotion and Disparities, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Health Education England, the Department of Health and Social Care and Healthwatch England.
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Content ArticleWhile many physicians may avoid discussing the subject, a study showed that who gets addressed with the honorific “Dr.” may depend on gender, degree and specialty.
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Content ArticleThe failure to consider the needs of diverse groups of people badly impacts experience of care. Sarah Sweeney, Head of Policy at National Voices points out how the NHS needs to change the way it communicates with people regarding care.
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Content ArticleThis article by Carrie Murphy looks at the practice of inserting a 'husband stich' or 'daddy stitch', where midwives or obstetricians make an unnecessary extra stitch when repairing episiotomies or tearing from birth. The belief is that it will make the vaginal opening tighter and therefore increase pleasure for the woman's sexual partner. The author highlights that this is a real practice that has been carried out on women for many years, and describes the ongoing impact it can have on women affected, many of whom don't realise they have been given too many stitches. This misogynistic and unethical practice can cause additional pain for women during sex. The women featured in this article state that they did not consent to the practice, being vulnerable after childbirth and in many cases unaware of what a 'husband stitch' was. Angela Sanford reports only finding out that she had a 'husband stitch' five years after birth at a cervical screening appointment where the nurse expressed concern. Murphy expresses her concern that the practice may still be carried out without women's consent, leaving them feeling violated and in pain.
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Content ArticleMany are still reporting minimisation of their Long Covid symptoms – and it’s partially attributable to the fact that female patients are routinely dismissed. Five women share their experiences.
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Content ArticleThe aim of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) is to deliver additional diagnostic capacity in England by providing quicker and more convenient access for patients and reducing pressure on hospitals. The vision is for CDCs to be ‘one-stop shops for checks, scans and tests’, designed to achieve early diagnoses for patients and timely treatment and intervention, and are part of the offer of more place-based, person-centred approaches to care, removing some of the known barriers to access. But are CDCs living up to their promise?
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Content ArticleThe All Party Parliamentary Group on Menopause (the APPG), chaired by leading parliamentary campaigner Carolyn Harris MP, has published its final report following a year-long inquiry into the subject. The MPs findings demonstrate that widespread action is needed across all spheres to improve the situation for those going through the menopause, and the families, friends and colleagues affected by it. Menopause symptoms can have a debilitating impact on the day-to-day lives of women. Whether from the inability to get the right diagnosis at the right time, difficulties in accessing HRT, a lack of support from their employer while struggling at work, or simply not being able to recognise what is happening to them and their bodies and seek help. Despite the fact that 51% of the population will experience the menopause, the entrenched taboo around women’s health issues has meant that the support for the 13 million women currently going through peri-menopause or menopause is completely inadequate. The APPG is particularly concerned about the socio-economic divide emerging between women who are able to access the right treatment, and those who lose out in the postcode lottery and do not have the financial means to seek treatment elsewhere.
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Content ArticleThe burden of multiple conditions is unevenly distributed across the population, and evidence shows that people living in the most deprived areas are developing conditions on average 10-15 years earlier than those living in the least. This report from The Taskforce on Multiple Conditions established by The Richmond Group of Charities, outlines a series of key questions and opportunities for change, designed to support and shape the plans and actions of everyone responsible for the delivery of health and care services. The research for the report focused on four areas of England containing communities on low incomes, people from minority ethnic groups and people living in both urban and rural environments. A rapid evidence review into the literature on health inequalities and multiple long-term conditions was also carried out to inform the report.
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Content Article
NICE and health inequalities (October 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in NICE
Health inequalities are differences in health across the population, and between different groups in society, that are systematic, unfair and avoidable. This webpage from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) outlines a definition of health inequalities. highlights factors that cause them, explores their effects and talks about how NICE can help health services tackle health inequalities. -
Content ArticlePolicymakers are increasingly emphasising the role of health services in addressing social and economic factors that shape health, but guidance on how this should be done in practice is limited. This long read from The Health Foundation outlines a framework to understand potential approaches for NHS organisations to address social factors that shape health, focusing on local and regional action. It describes four categories of potential approaches, from more narrow interventions focused on improving care for individual patients, to broader partnerships to improve health of populations.
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Content ArticleThis blog by Professor Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology, University College London looks at the ways in which the Covid-19 pandemic both exposed and amplified underlying inequalities in society. He highlights the link between higher Covid mortality rates, race and deprivation that demonstrates the striking health inequalities that exist in the UK. He asks the question, "Can the UK learn the lessons of the pandemic, and build back fairer?"
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Content ArticleIn England, around 10 million adults and 12,000 children have a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition. Ethnic minority groups, people from lower income households and those living in areas of high deprivation are most affected. In this guest blog for the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA), Bola Owolabi, Director of the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England, highlights the role that MSK health inequalities play in people's lives. She looks at the link between socio-economic disadvantage and poor health outcomes, and discusses the wider implications of disability due to MSK conditions. She describes work being done by the NHS, and highlights ARMA's work to narrow MSK health inequalities through listening to the experiences of underserved communities and working in partnership to improve care.
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Content ArticleIn this article for The Cut magazine, author Rae Nudson looks at the sometimes severe pain that women face when having gynaecology examinations and procedures, and how this has been accepted and normalised by healthcare professionals. She highlights a lack of understanding about the complex nature of pain, which leads to an expectation that women just need to 'put up' with pain during cervical screening, IUD fitting, hysteroscopy and other procedures. Speaking to women who have had painful and traumatising experiences, she discusses the long-term impact that these negative experiences can have, including putting women off attending potentially life-saving screening appointments. She also outlines the particular problems faced by Black women during gynaecological procedures, caused by incorrect assumptions that they feel pain less and are more able to tolerate it. These assumptions are rooted in historical oppression and racism, but research demonstrates that they still have a bearing on how healthcare professionals treat women from Black and other minority backgrounds.
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Content ArticleThe Voluntary Organisations Disability Group (VODG) has launched a commission on Covid-19, Disablism and Systemic Racism to explore how the worst impacts of Covid have fallen on Disabled people, particularly those from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic groups. The Commission is examining the extent to systemic neglect of social care over many years has caused negative outcomes that have been worsened by confused approaches by the Government during the pandemic. This includes poor implementation of policy and conflicting guidance. The work will gather evidence, scrutinise the Department of Health and Social Care’s policies and responses to the pandemic, including ways in which systemic racism may have further worsened outcomes for disabled people of colour, and build solutions and support for transformative and sustainable change in social care, based on justice and human rights. The Commission is calling on Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic groups to share their views and experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic as part of its 'Call for Views and Experiences'. They are also keen to hear from families, carers and people who work in social care.
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Content ArticleThe gap in healthy life expectancy is being driven by the increasing numbers of people managing a long-term condition (LTC) and, increasingly more than one – known as multi-morbidity. This situation affects a higher proportion of the population facing systemic discrimination and marginalisation, and those experiencing higher levels of deprivation. This report from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy raises awareness of health inequities in rehabilitation and recovery services across the UK
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Content ArticleThe Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) is issuing the UK’s paediatricians with detailed advice on how they can help households in poverty. It has drawn up a series of resources, including advice for doctors treating children to use appointments to talk sensitively to their parents about issues that can have a big impact on their offspring’s health. These include diet, local pollution levels, socio-economic circumstances and difficulties at home or school, which are closely linked to children’s risk of being overweight, asthmatic or stressed.
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Content ArticleMedicine is a mirror for the racial injustice in our society; it is a field riddled with racial disparities in everything from research funding to patient care to life expectancy. There may be no population of patients whose healthcare and outcomes are more affected by racism than those with sickle cell disease (SCD). Patients with SCD are too often marginalised and dismissed while seeking medical care when their bodies hurt and they cannot breathe. As medical leaders around the United States issue statements denouncing racial injustice and calling for us to “dismantle racism at every level,” we must ensure that these pledges translate into durable improvements for patients with SCD. Alexandra Power-Hays and Patrick T. McGann propose a number of changes to reduce the impact of racism on patients with SCD in the US.
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Content ArticleAs the UK emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic ‘Build Back Better’ has become the mantra. Important, but we need to Build Back Fairer. The levels of social, environmental and economic inequality in society are damaging health and wellbeing. The aim of this report from the Institute of Health Equity is three-fold: To examine inequalities in COVID-19 mortality. Focus is on inequalities in mortality among members of BAME groups and among certain occupations, alongside continued attention to the socioeconomic gradient in health – the more deprived the area, the worse COVID-19 mortality tends to be. To show the effects that the pandemic, and the societal response to contain the pandemic, have had on social and economic inequalities, their effects on mental and physical health, and their likely effects on health inequalities in the future. To make recommendations on what needs to be done.
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Content ArticleWomen from ethnic minorities are voicing their concerns that they face endemic structural racism when seeking and accessing healthcare, and they feel that their symptoms and signs are more often dismissed. It is vital that patients are listened to when they say that they feel this is also due to structural racism in healthcare.
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Content Article
The Yentl syndrome is alive and well (March 2011)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Women's health
More women than men die annually from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in the developed world. This represents a reversal of fortune from previous decades and places women firmly as the new majority now impacted. Notably, the adverse IHD gender gap is the widest in relatively young women, where myocardial infarction (MI) mortality is 2-fold higher in women under 50 years compared with age-matched men. While it is now clear that there are many gender differences in IHD outcomes, including more frequent angina diagnosis, more office visits, more avoidable hospitalisations, higher MI mortality, and higher rates of heart failure in women compared with men, the aetiologies contributing to these differences are less clear. -
Content ArticleIn this article for Stylist, Sarah Graham, founder of the Hysterical Women blog, looks at the statistics around gender and heart attacks and gender. She highlights the worrying disparities and argues that sexism plays a dangerous role. The term Yentl Syndrome is used to describe the different ways men and women are treated after heart attacks.
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Content ArticleTwo years into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that gender differences exist, and that women, men, and gender minorities are differentially impacted by the pandemic.
