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Showing results for tags 'Health inequalities'.
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Content Article
Health inequalities newsletters by Hemant Patel
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Health inequalities
These newsletters on LinkedIn from Hemant Patel are dedicated to raising the issue of health inequalities and population health management. -
Content ArticleThis BMJ Leader article from Roger Kline looks at how to tackle structural racism in the NHS, discussing psychological safety and inclusion, and the role leaders need to play.
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Content Article
Supporting equity-centred engagement
Patient_Safety_Learning posted an article in Patient engagement
This guide was developed through a collaboration between the Public and Patient Engagement Collaborative (PPEC) and the Public Engagement in Health Policy (PEHP) Project at McMaster University. As groups and organisations seek to bring a stronger equity focus to their engagement work, there are many things to consider and a growing number of resources to support this work. The aim of this guide is to help you navigate the many helpful resources that exist to help centre equity in your engagement work. -
News Article
‘They didn’t believe I was in labour’ says Black mother ‘ignored’ by midwives
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Women and Equalities Committee in a recent report has challenged the government over failures to address inequalities in maternity care which have led to Black women dying at four times the rate of white women. Tinuke Awe, 31, was left ‘traumatised’ and forced to go without pain relief after midwives didn’t believe she was in labour. Ms Awe, was induced after experiencing late pre-eclampsia while pregnant with her first child in 2017. She said: “Pre-eclampsia can be life-threatening for mum and baby, and it could’ve been fatal if I wasn’t treated. I was told I couldn’t leave the hospital and had to be induced". “They said the hormones could take 24 hours to work, but my labour happened really quickly and when I told the midwife she didn’t even believe I was in labour.” “I felt so overlooked and it was horrible how nobody listened to me,” she added. “I ended up having to have an assisted delivery which isn’t what I wanted, but it could’ve been avoided if someone had acknowledged I was in labour rather than ignore me. I just felt so unimportant.” Ms Aew alongside Clotilde Abe set up the charity Five X More. The organisation helps give advice and empower Black women to make informed choices during pregnancy and after childbirth. Five X More hope that the testimonials of the women they support can be used to show that better outcomes are possible with their ‘five steps for self-advocacy‘ being used to encourage women to ask for things like a second opinion. Read full story Source: The Independent, 18 April 2023 Read our interview with Tinuke Awe on the hub: Five X More campaign: Improving maternal mortality rates and health outcomes for black women -
News Article
End racial disparities in maternal deaths
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
An MPs' report is calling for faster progress to tackle "appalling" higher death rates for black women and those from poorer areas in childbirth. The Women and Equalities Committee report says racism has played a key role in creating health disparities. But the many complex causes are "still not fully understood" and more funding and maternity staff are also needed. The NHS in England said it was committed to making maternity care safer for all women. The government said it had invested £165m in the maternity workforce and was promoting careers in midwifery, with an extra 3,650 training places a year. Black women are nearly four times more likely than white women to die within six weeks of giving birth, with Asian women 1.8 times more likely, according to UK figures for 2018-20. And women from the poorest areas of the country, where a higher proportion of babies belonging to ethnic minorities are born, the report says, are two and a half times more likely to die than those from the richest. Caroline Nokes, who chairs the committee, said births on the NHS "are among the safest in the world" but black women's raised risk was "shocking" and improvements in disparities between different groups were too slow. "It is frankly shameful that we have known about these disparities for at least 20 years - it cannot take another 20 to resolve," she added. -
Content ArticleIn the UK, maternal mortality for Black women is currently almost four times higher than for White women, and significant disparities also exist for women of Asian and mixed ethnicity. In this report the Women’s and Equalities Select Committee reviews what is currently understood about the reasons for disparities in maternal deaths, analyses Government and NHS action to date and existing recommendations for change and consider the ongoing challenges to addressing disparities.
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Content ArticleAqua recently convened a selection of expert panellists to a round table discussion, chaired by Professor Ted Baker, to consider ‘what does safety look like at a system level?’ and discuss the key issues and help support the development of Integrated Care Systems. This report captures the key themes covered in this discussion.
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Content ArticleThe eagerly anticipated Hewitt Review into integrated care systems (ICSs), led by former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt set prevention decentralisation and cross government co-production as key priorities. What have we learned so far? David Duffy discusses the key takeaways.
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Content ArticleIn the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we are all too aware of the urgent health inequalities that plague our world. But these inequalities have always been urgent: modern medicine has a colonial and racist history. Here, in an essential and searingly truthful account, Annabel Sowemimo unravels the colonial roots of modern medicine. Tackling systemic racism, hidden histories and healthcare myths, Sowemimo recounts her own experiences as a doctor, patient and activist. Divided exposes the racial biases of medicine that affect our everyday lives and provides an illuminating - and incredibly necessary - insight into how our world works, and who it works for.
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Content ArticleCervical cancer disparities persist for Black women despite targeted efforts. Reasons for this vary; one potential factor affecting screening and prevention is perceived discrimination in medical settings. This US study in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities aimed to describe experiences of perceived discrimination in medical settings for Black women and to explore the impact on cervical cancer screening and prevention. The authors concluded that Black women engaging in healthcare are experiencing perceived discrimination in medical settings. They suggest that future interventions should address the poor quality of medical encounters that Black women experience.
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Content ArticleIn the UK today, nearly 40% of the population are living in poverty because of low income. This means that nurses and midwives are likely to meet people experiencing poverty and deprivation as part of their everyday work and should be ready and able to help them access the assistance they need to overcome the associated challenges. This article in the British Journal of Nursing examines the link between financial status and people's health and wellbeing. The article includes a case study and suggestions as to how nurses and midwives can promote financial wellbeing.
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Content ArticleIn this article for Chamber UK magazine, Lyn Brown MP warns that hysteroscopy could be the next big women's health scandal and calls for dramatic improvements in care. She describes the accounts of women being encouraged to undergo hysteroscopy without anaesthesia and appropriate pain relief, and how lack of informed consent is leaving women feeling violated and scared to undergo future gynaecological procedures. She also describes how she raised the issue in the House of Commons and outlines the failure of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology's new 'Good Practice Paper' to properly address the decision making process and acknowledge the severity of the pain experienced by many women who undergo hysteroscopy. The article can be found on page 64 of the e-magazine.
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Content ArticleThis paper, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) aimed to explore how parental wealth and race affect maternal and infant health outcomes in California. The authors used administrative data that combines the California birth records, hospitalisations and death records with parental income from Internal Revenue Service tax records and the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics file to provide new evidence on economic inequality in infant and maternal health. The paper also used birth outcomes and infant mortality rates in Sweden as a benchmark, finding that infant and maternal health is worse in California than in Sweden for most outcomes throughout the entire income distribution.
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Content ArticleThis report outlines the results of the Patient Information Forum's (PIF's) 2022 survey and sets out progress made in the crucial areas of health and digital literacy since the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Content ArticleAqua recently convened a selection of expert panellists to a round table discussion, considering ‘What does safety look like at a system level?’. The round table was chaired by Professor Ted Baker, who led the discussion around the key issues facing Integrated Care Systems and how we can help support their development.
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Content ArticleA survey of over 4,000 people with long-term conditions on prescription charges has found the charge is a barrier to accessing medicine. The findings come following the UK government's announcement that the prescription charge will rise on 1 April 2023.
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Content Article
Footage from the Black Maternal Health Conference UK 2023 is now available for download. Sessions highlight the gaps within the system and disparities - and provide nuance, to further reiterate the importance of Black women receiving health care that is respectful, culturally competent, safe and of the highest quality. Hosted by Sandra Igwe, Chief Executive of The Motherhood Group. You can purchase the full recording, or specific sessions, from the event via the link below. -
Content ArticleThe Prescription Charges Coalition is a group of 50 organisations calling on the Government to scrap prescription charges for people with long-term conditions in England. This report by the Coalition outlines the results of a survey of over 4,000 people with long-term conditions about prescription charges. It highlights that the prescription charge is a barrier to patients with long-term conditions accessing medicine.
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News Article
Ringfence 10% of UK health spending for preventive measures, report urges
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Governments should set aside 10% of health spending for preventive and public measures such as cycle lanes and anti-obesity strategies, a thinktank has said, warning that “political short-termism” over health is making the UK increasingly ill and unequal. The report by the Tony Blair Institute argues that a centralised NHS model “almost entirely focused on treating sickness” rather than on wider objectives is not only harming people’s health but hampering the economy, with more than 2.5 million people out of the labour market because of long-term ailments. The report emphasises the human cost as well, noting that the effect of diseases caused or exacerbated by lifestyle means UK life expectancy is stagnating, while men living in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea can now expect to live 27 years longer than their peers in Blackpool, Lancashire. Along with a coherent central plan, the authors stressed the need for effective localism, with accountable regional bodies working to improve public health, rather than “the existing top-down and reactive approach of the NHS”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 24 March 2023 -
Content ArticleThis new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change sets out the need to both harness the power of new technologies and to create a streamlined, strategic state to revolutionise the delivery of public services. Nowhere is this approach more urgently needed than on the country’s health. Healthcare demands continue to increase while costs are spiralling as health takes up an ever-higher proportion of public spending. At the same time, outcomes are deteriorating, with UK life expectancy stagnating and health inequalities on the rise. So, we’re all paying more and more to achieve less and less. The report suggests a paradigm shift: we must begin to treat individual and collective health as a national asset. Government must focus its efforts and resources on creating the conditions in which population and individual health can flourish.
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News Article
Conference highlights racial disparity in UK maternal healthcare
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Unconscious bias in the UK healthcare system is contributing to the stark racial disparity in maternal healthcare outcomes, a conference has heard. The Black Maternal Health Conference UK, also heard that black women not being listened to by healthcare professionals was also a contributing factor. The conference, organised by The Motherhood Group, was arranged to highlight the racial inequality in maternal healthcare and the disparity in maternal mortality between white, ethnic minority and black women in the UK. Black women in the UK are four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women, according to a report published by MBRRACE-UK. Asian women are twice as likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth. Sandra Igwe, who founded the NGO The Motherhood Group in 2016 after the traumatic birth of her daughter, told the PA Media that the event was an opportunity to “bridge the community, stakeholders, professionals, [and] government”, de-stigmatise mental health and bring about change to improve black maternal health. “There are so many stats – so why wouldn’t we have a whole day’s conference dedicated to addressing these, just scratching the surface of some of the stats?” Charities and activists have been raising alarm bells about the dangerous consequences of unconscious bias in maternal healthcare for many years. Igwe co-chaired the Birthrights inquiry, a year-long investigation into racial injustice in the UK maternity services, which heard testimony from women, birthing people, healthcare professionals and lawyers and concluded that “systemic racism exists in the UK and in public services”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 20 March 2023 Sandra Igwe is our hub topic lead for Black Maternal Health. Read our recent interview with Sandra. -
Content ArticleIn this podcast, host Thea Joshi is joined by Emma Bailey and Hannah Moore from the Equally Well campaign, which the Centre for Mental Health runs in partnership with Rethink Mental Illness. They share how Equally Well UK is working to improve the physical health of people with severe mental illness, with the critical aim of reducing the unacceptable mortality gap that affects people with severe mental illness. Emma and Hannah discuss how physical health is often neglected in mental health inpatient services, and give examples of good work that is being done to change this.
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EventuntilCommunities are playing an increasingly important role in improving health and meeting the wellbeing needs of people locally, highlighted in part by their role in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Integrated care systems (ICSs) need to recognise the role communities can play in improving and sustaining good health, and as part of this they need to seek greater involvement with local voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) groups at the place and neighbourhood level, where the link local communities is at its strongest. This conference will provide an opportunity to discuss the impact of community-led and person-centred approaches to improving health and wellbeing, and to explore what more can be done to build on community interventions, assets and solutions that developed as a response to the pandemic. It will also consider the challenges of demonstrating value and of working with communities to assess need and provide services. You will hear from community groups who have worked with others – including their ICS, local health system or local authority – to develop a collaborative approach to tackling health inequalities.
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Content ArticleWhen the Paralympian and television presenter Tanni Grey-Thompson found she was pregnant in 2001, she went to see her doctor. “The first thing I was offered was a termination,” she says, “because people like me shouldn’t be allowed to have children.” She changed hospitals and gave birth to Carys, but she says that for disabled people, “the relationship with the NHS can be quite mixed”. Read the full article, published in the Times, via the link below.
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Content ArticleIn the US, patients receiving cancer treatment via Medicare or Medicaid—two federal health insurance programmes—can face barriers to accessing treatment when insurers use the Prior Authorization Process to deny access. In this letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) outlines its concerns that prior authorizations are acting as "roadblocks to Americans with cancer getting the optimal treatment on a timely basis." Referring to proposed rule changes that aim to reduce the burden that prior authorization processes place on providers, the COA calls for the inclusion of medications to ensure that American's with cancer are not denied the treatment they need.
