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Showing results for tags 'Health inequalities'.
Found 1,206 results
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Content ArticleWomen of colour frequently report that their race has impacted the quality of care they receive. In this study, women of colour who experienced a traumatic birth described the racist and gendered stereotypes ascribed to them (uneducated, negligent, (in)tolerant to pain, and dramatic) and how those stereotypes impacted the obstetrical care they received. Ultimately these experiences caused long-term harm to their mental health, decreased trust in healthcare, and reduced the desire to have children in the future.
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Content ArticleThe authors of this JAMA article describe the experience of a family member who was in critical care, and who is deaf. They outline a lack of awareness amongst healthcare professionals about their relative's deafness and highlight the lack of understanding in how to communicate with her. They go on to outline a number of approaches to communicating with patients who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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Content ArticleThis US study looked at how critical care doctors approach shared decision-making with Black compared with White caregivers of critically ill patients. The authors found that racial disparities exist in critical care clinicians' approaches to shared decision-making and suggest potential areas for future interventions aimed at promoting equity.
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Content ArticleHealth inequalities are avoidable, unfair and systematic differences in health between different groups of people. Here we examine the key data on this complex and wide-ranging issue.
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Content ArticleThis US study in the journal Pediatrics analysed a national sample of paediatric hospitalisations to identify disparities in safety events. The authors used data from the 2019 Kids’ Inpatient Database and looked at the independent variables of race, ethnicity and the organisation paying for care (for example, private insurance company or Medicaid). The results showed disparities in safety events for Black and Hispanic children, indicating a need for targeted interventions to improve patient safety in hospitals.
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Content ArticleSpina bifida is a developmental condition affecting the brain and spine, often leading to physical and cognitive impairments, and bladder and bowel issues. Widely regarded as one of the most severe conditions compatible with life, open spina bifida can result in significant morbidity, with numerous body systems and tissues affected.
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Content ArticleEarly-onset colon cancer (EOCC) is increasing in the US and disproportionately affects African-Americans. This analysis in the American Journal of Surgery aimed to compare EOCC survival among Black and White patients after matching relevant socio-demographic factors and stage. The authors found that Black patients with stage 3 EOCC are less likely to receive chemotherapy and have worse survival than White patients. They call for further research to identify potential factors driving this inequality.
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Content ArticleAiring Pain is a podcast from Pain Concern. Each edition brings together people in pain and top specialists to talk about resources that can help. This edition investigates the significant inequalities and disparities in treatment among primary care pain management services. It features the following participants: Professor Jonathan Hill, Director of Research for the School of Allied Health Professionals and Professor of Physiotherapy at the Keele School of Medicine; Dr Ama Kissie, post-doctoral fellow at the University of Ghent and a Clinical Psychologist; Dr Whitney Scott, clinical psychologist who lectures at Kings College London and is the research lead at the INPUT Pain Management Unit at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital.
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Content ArticleThis report by the Patients Association analyses the opinions and experiences of diagnostic testing services of more than 1,000 NHS patients. It highlights that patients view diagnostics as a fundamental part of the NHS—and one that should be prioritised. Most respondents (93%) want testing capacity to be invested in over the coming years so that patients can receive tests and diagnosis more quickly. Patients place such importance on diagnostics that 60% would consider paying for the tests they need if they faced a long wait on the NHS.
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Content Article
Can I be seen? Birthing while Black (17 February 2024)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Maternity
In this Lancet article, Lioba Hirsch shares her experience of labour and birth as a Black woman. She describes dismissive behaviours and blaming comments from several healthcare professionals that left her feeling unable to ask questions and advocate for herself and her baby. She suggests that the lack of compassion and dignity she was shown are a risk to patient safety: "I am so glad that my child was safe that day, but many children and their birthing parents are not and the slope from disrespect and disregard to dismissal and its consequences is a slippery one." -
News Article
Black children suffer ‘more complications’ after appendicitis surgery
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Black children in the UK are four times more likely to experience complications after appendicitis surgery than their white counterparts, a study has found. The study, funded by the Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, looked at 2,799 children from 80 hospitals across the UK aged under 16 who had surgery for suspected appendicitis between November 2019 and January 2022. Of these, 185 children (7%) developed postoperative complications within 30 days of the surgery. Three-quarters of these complications were related to the wound, while a quarter were respiratory, urinary or catheter-related or of unknown origin. The study found that black children had a four times greater risk of experiencing complications after the operation, and that this risk was independent of the child’s socioeconomic status and health history. Appendicitis is one of the most common paediatric surgical emergency with 10,000 performed every year. The authors said that this was the first study to look at the demographic differences of postoperative complication rates in regards to appendicitis. The researchers said they could not draw firm conclusions regarding why black children had worse outcomes after this type of emergency surgery, and that this apparent health inequality “requires urgent further investigation and development of interventions aimed at resolution”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 22 February 2024 -
Content ArticleA growing awareness of sex and gender bias in evidence has resulted in the development of new tools to address this concern. The Sex and Gender Equity in Research (SAGER) guidelines and the Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER) are two initiatives designed to foster more transparent research and reporting practices that bridge the gender evidence gap. These tools enable researchers to unravel the complexities that underpin health risks and outcomes and generate more accurate and relevant findings that can inform effective and equitable policies for better health outcomes. This Lancet article looks at the World Health Organization's (WHO's) adoption of GATHER and the SAGER guidelines to tackle sporadic and suboptimal reporting of sex and gender data. The authors argue that this move is pivotal within WHO's broader strategic agenda, which it outlined in the Roadmap to Advance Gender Equality, Human Rights and Health Equity 2023–2030, launched in December 2023.
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Content ArticleThis animation aims to help staff and employers across health and social care understand Oliver's Training and why it is so vitally important. It was co-designed and co-produced with autistic people and people with a learning disability. Oliver McGowan died aged 18 in 2017 after being given antipsychotic medication to which he had a fatal reaction. He was given the medication despite his own and his family's assertions that he could not be given antipsychotics, and the fact that this was recorded in his medical records. The animation tells his story and highlights the increased risks facing people with learning disabilities and autism when accessing healthcare.
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Content Article
The King's Fund: Mental health 360 (21 February 2024)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Mental health
The King's Fund 'Mental health 360' aims to provide a ‘360-degree’ review of mental health care in England. It focuses on nine core areas, bringing together data available at the time of publication with expert insights to help you understand what is happening in relation to mental health and the wider context. The nine core areas covered are: Prevalence Access Workforce Funding and costs Quality and patient experience Acute mental health care for adults Services for children and young people Inequalities Data. -
Content ArticleWhen public areas such as train stations breach their capacity, emergency protocols are rolled out and stations are closed. Yet when hospitals become overcrowded, there isn’t the option to stop urgent and emergency care. Instead, staff have to develop workarounds, delivering care in areas not designed – nor safe or effective – for clinical use, a phenomenon commonly known as ‘corridor care’. The increasing frequency of corridor care is alarming – both for patient safety and staff morale, and because it risks normalising substandard care delivery. Corridor care largely occurs when emergency departments are inundated with patients. 45,000 people visit major hospital A&E departments in England each day, 16% more than 10 years ago. Many of these patients require hospital admission or further care. Limited beds within hospitals, stretched community services and chronically low social care capacity mean that A&E often becomes a bottleneck, with patients unable to ‘flow’ out of the department because there are no free beds elsewhere in the hospital. In this blog, Heather Wilson a Programme and Policy Officer in the Healthy Lives team at the Health Foundation, as well as a registered nurse who continues to work in a central London emergency department discusses the impact of corridor care on staff, patients and families. Further reading on the hub: A silent safety scandal: A nurse’s first-hand account of a corridor nursing shift
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Content ArticleThis white paper presents a framework for health care organizations to improve health equity in the communities they serve, guidance for measuring health equity, a case study, and a self-assessment tool.
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News Article
Ethnic minorities in England have worse access to GPs
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Areas across England where the highest proportion of ethnic minorities live have the poorest access to GPs, with experts attributing this disparity to an outdated model being used to determine funding. As of October 2023, there were 34 fully qualified full-time-equivalent GPs per 100,000 patients in the areas with the highest proportion of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to a Guardian analysis of NHS Digital and census data. This is 29% lower than the 48 general practitioners per 100,000 people serving neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of white British people. Although ethnic minorities tend to be younger than the white British population, minority ethnic areas still have the lowest number of GPs per person even when factors such as age, sex and health necessities are considered. Prof Miqdad Asaria at the London School of Economics department of health policy said it was “very concerning” that ethnic minorities “have systematically poorer access to primary care which is likely to be a key driver of current and future health inequalities”. “Primary care plays a crucial role in preventing disease, diagnosing and treating illness, and facilitating access to specialist or hospital treatment for people who need it,” he added. Read full story Source: The Guardian,15 February 2024 -
News Article
'Ethnic bias' delayed care before Liverpool woman's death
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
"Cultural and ethnic bias" delayed diagnosing and treating a pregnant black woman before her death in hospital, an investigation found. The probe was launched when the 31-year-old Liverpool Women's Hospital patient died on 16 March, 2023. Investigators from the national body the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations (MSNI) were called in after the woman died. A report prepared for the hospital's board said that the MSNI had concluded that "ethnicity and health inequalities impacted on the care provided to the patient, suggesting that an unconscious cultural bias delayed the timing of diagnosis and response to her clinical deterioration". "This was evident in discussions with staff involved in the direct care of the patient". The hospital's response to the report also said: "The approach presented by some staff, and information gathered from staff interviews, gives the impression that cultural bias and stereotyping may sometimes go unchallenged and be perceived as culturally acceptable within the Trust." Liverpool Riverside Labour MP Kim Johnson said it was "deeply troubling" that "the colour of a mother's skin still has a significant impact on her own and her baby's health outcomes". Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 February 2024 -
Content ArticleThis study assessed for disparities in the presentation and management of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC). The authors identified patients with MTC from the National Cancer Database and assessed differences in disease presentation and likelihood of guideline-concordant surgical management by sex and race/ethnicity. The results showed that male and non-White patients with MTC more frequently present with advanced disease, and Black patients are less likely to undergo guideline-concordant surgery.
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Content Article
We all have a right to receive information about our own health in a way we can understand. There is no excuse for poor-quality, inaccessible, information that excludes people. In this blog I will consider how these needs can be met and the implications for patient safety if they are not. I have written about accessible information in the past but in this blog, I will dig deeper into some specifics, namely: Special educational needs, learning difficulties and disabilities. Visual and hearing impairments. Dominant language. If you’re interested in accessible information, I’d strongly recommend you familiarise yourself with the Accessible Information Standard – this is a standard that the NHS and adult social care have to adhere to by law when it comes to communicating with the general public. This blog will give some tips on how you can make sure you meet this standard. -
Event
Women's Health Professional Care
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
untilWomen’s Health Professional Care is designed for healthcare professionals and policymakers in primary and secondary care looking to improve health outcomes for women. Bringing together key learnings and new insights on a range of issues and challenges affecting women throughout their lives, Women’s Health Professional Care aims to address gender disparities in healthcare by highlighting areas of women’s health that have traditionally been overlooked. Register -
EventuntilProfessor Sir Chris Whitty will deliver a live-streamed lecture on health inequalities to launch Talk 200, the University's bicentenary lecture and podcast series. ‘Health inequalities past, present and future’ will consider the main drivers of inequalities and disparities in health, how these have changed over time and why addressing them remains a major public health priority. As a society we face the hard truth that the more socio-economically disadvantaged someone is, the higher their risk of poor health. The world’s greatest killer is not any one individual disease, but the unequal way in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. In Greater Manchester, our unique health and social care ecosystem means we can rapidly drive innovation and translate breakthroughs into real-world solutions – which can be scaled-up and replicated across the globe. Professor Whitty is Chief Medical Officer for England, the UK government’s Chief Medical Adviser, and head of the public health profession. His lecture is the first in our Talk 200 series: a mix of in-person and live-streamed lectures and recorded podcast episodes to be released throughout 2024, our bicentenary year. This event will also include a panel discussion and Q&A, with those joining online able to submit questions using Slido and the code Talk200ChrisWhitty (page not active until 13 February). Watch the lecture live
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Content ArticleIn my 15 years focusing on developing drink thickening solutions for dysphagia patients, the intersection of dysphagia management and patient safety has become increasingly apparent. Dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, presents not only as a significant health challenge but also as a critical patient safety issue. The condition's underdiagnosis, particularly in vulnerable populations, heightens the risk of severe complications, including choking, aspiration pneumonia, dehydration and the profound fear of choking that can lead to malnutrition.
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Content ArticleThis blog by Healthwatch outlines research conducted by the organisation that shows the issues homeless people face accessing the health and social care they need. The research demonstrates that homeless people: have particular problems accessing GPs and other services. experience serious problems accessing NHS dentistry. may forgo care because of the costs of travelling to appointments. often feel judged by healthcare professionals and not well cared for. The blog also discusses the impact that integrated care systems could have in improving accessibility and quality of care for homeless people.
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Content ArticleAlthough disparities in surgical outcomes are well-documented, understanding of how socioecological factors drive these disparities remains limited. This US study’s objective was to develop and assess the acceptability and feasibility of a comprehensive tool to evaluate socioecological determinants of health in patients requiring colorectal surgery. The authors developed an 88-item assessment tool measuring 31 socioecological determinants of health. It was assessed as having high acceptability and feasibility for patients who required colorectal surgery. The authors concluded that this work will help to identify what research is needed to understand and address surgical disparities.
