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Showing results for tags 'Health inequalities'.
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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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EventuntilThe advancing mental health equalities strategy published in September 2020 outlines the core enabling actions NHS England and NHS Improvement will take with the support of the Advancing Mental Health Equalities Taskforce – an alliance of sector experts, including patients and carers, who are committed to creating more equitable access, experience and outcomes in mental health services in England. It sits alongside the NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20–2023/24 and as such is similarly focused in scope. This strategy is also an important element of the overall NHS plans to accelerate action to address health inequalities in the next stage of responding to COVID-19. This webinar lead by Dr Jacqui Dyer MBE will introduce advancing mental health equalities strategy and summarise the core actions that NHS England and NHS Improvement will take to bridge the gaps for communities fairing worse than others in mental health services. Register
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EventThis Westminster Health Forum conference will discuss the priorities for improving the health outcomes in babies and young children and the next steps for policy. It is taking place as The Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP, Government's Early Years Health Adviser - who is a keynote speaker at this conference - leads a review into improving health outcomes in babies and young children as part of the Government’s levelling up policy agenda. With the first phase of the review expected in early 2021, this conference will be an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss the priorities and latest thinking on improving health outcomes. The discussion is bringing together stakeholders with key policy officials who are due to attend from DHSC and the DfE. The agenda: The priorities for improving health outcomes for babies and young children. Understanding the importance of the first 1,000 days in child development' Improving child public health, reducing inequalities and the impact of social adversity in childhood. Identifying measures for supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged young children and families - and learning from the COVID-19 pandemic. Priorities for system-wide collaboration to address underlying health inequalities and key opportunities for improving health outcomes in young children going forward. Next steps for the commissioning of health services for children in the early stages of life. Improving health outcomes for young children across health and care - integrating services, care pathways, workforce training, and partnership working. Register
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EventWestminster Health Forum policy conference. The agenda: Assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the ethnic minority community, and priorities for improving health outcomes. The health and social care response to inequality through the pandemic and taking forward new initiatives. Understanding the data and risk factors for COVID-19 in ethnic minority groups. Wider health inequalities faced by people in ethnic minorities - addressing underlying factors, and the role of COVID-19 recovery strategies in supporting long-term change. Priorities for providing leadership in tackling health inequalities in the workforce. Driving forward and ensuring race equality in the NHS. Providing support to the ethnic minority health workforce and taking forward key learnings from COVID-19. Next steps for action in race disparity in healthcare. Book
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EventuntilIt is impossible in the year 2020 to ignore the glaring inequalities in our healthcare system. The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, coupled with local Black Lives Matter activity following the killing of George Floyd, underscore the threat systemic racism poses to lives in the UK as well as the US. Though these events have prompted much discussion in the medical community, this injustice is not new: data has long demonstrated a link between ethnicity and health outcomes. What can we, as doctors and medical managers, do to close this health gap and ensure all patients can expect the same quality of care, treatment and outcomes in the future? Seeking to answer this question, the BMA committee for medical managers (CMM) are hosting a free, online panel discussion to explore how increasing diversity in medical leadership can lead to better outcomes for all. Register
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EventuntilHealth inequalities are deep, persistent and hard to change. Solutions call for systemic changes at an organisation level, whole-system partnerships and investment. What can we do to address health inequality as individuals working in healthcare? This webinar brings together a multidisciplinary faculty of speakers to highlight the ways individual healthcare professionals can help to reduce health inequality, despite their prevalence. Register
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EventuntilThe Health Foundation is exploring the pandemic’s implications for health and health inequalities. In this webinar, we share our learning so far, focusing on groups of people who have been particularly affected including young people and Black and minority ethnic groups. We’ll explore what the economic impact of the pandemic means for the wider determinants of health. And, as we move towards post-COVID-19 recovery, we’ll look at what's needed to address health inequalities and to create the conditions for everyone to live a healthy life. Register
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Content ArticleIn this blog, published by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Kedar Mate discusses the need to explicitly address race and racism in order to work towards health equity. "We never legislated long waiting times. We never imposed rules, regulations, customs, and norms for ineffective care. We did, however, legislate inequity."
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Content ArticleIn a project led by the Race Equality Foundation, the Men’s Health Forum teamed up with Faith Action and Clinks to develop a community-centred programme to offer blood pressure testing and raise awareness amongst black African and Caribbean males. The programme was piloted in barbershops, a bus depot and a local church in three London boroughs. It demonstrated that offering blood pressure checks in community settings could help overcome the reluctance amongst black African and Caribbean men to have their blood pressure checked. The report, following evaluation between February-March 2020 in the London boroughs of Southwark, Hackney and Brent, concluded: 'The community blood pressure programme was welcomed in all community settings. The pilots engaged a considerable number of men in an accessible environment that they were comfortable in. There was a willingness from community stakeholders for the programme to be implemented over a longer period of time, and healthcare providers may wish to consider the practicalities of delivering blood pressure testing in similar settings for specific target groups.'
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Content ArticleHeralded as an easy fix for health services under pressure, data technology is marching ahead unchecked. In this article for the BMJ, Poppy Noor asks whether there a risk it could compound inequalities.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Stephanie O'Donohue, Content and Engagement Manger for Patient Safety Learning, discusses some of the patient safety issues that specifically impact on women. Drawing on recent inquiries, patient testimonials and research, Stephanie focuses on three main issues; consent, patient engagement and bias. She highlights the need for people to work in partnership to understand the barriers to safe care for women and to prevent future harm.
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Content ArticleIn this short analysis from the Health Foundation, data from the GP patient survey, an annual independent survey run by Ipsos MORI on behalf of NHS England, was used to explore who gets good access to general practice, unpicking how patient satisfaction with the service they receive varies by deprivation, age and ethnicity. Note: The 2020 GP patient survey data were mostly collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore this analysis doesn’t reflect patient experiences or service changes during the pandemic.
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Content ArticleThe term “racism” is rarely used in the medical literature. Most physicians are not explicitly racist and are committed to treating all patients equally. However, they operate in an inherently racist system. Structural racism is insidious, and a large and growing body of literature documents disparate outcomes for different races despite the best efforts of individual healthcare professionals. If we aim to curtail systematic violence and premature death, clinicians and researchers will have to take an active role in addressing the root cause. Structural racism, the systems-level factors related to, yet distinct from, interpersonal racism, leads to increased rates of premature death and reduced levels of overall health and well-being. Like other epidemics, structural racism is causing widespread suffering, not only for black people and other communities of colour but for our society as a whole. It is a threat to the physical, emotional, and social well-being of every person in a society that allocates privilege on the basis of race. Hardeman et al. believe that as clinicians and researchers, we wield power, privilege, and responsibility for dismantling structural racism — and in this New England Journal of Medicine article the authors highlight recommendations for clinicians and researchers who wish to do so.
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Content Article
Diagnosing and treating systemic racism (16 July 2020)
Sam posted an article in Health inequalities
For physicians, the words “I can’t breathe” are a primal cry for help. As many physicians have left their comfort zones to care for patients with COVID-19–associated respiratory failure, the role of the medical profession in addressing this life-defining need has rarely been clearer. But as George Floyd’s repeated cry of “I can’t breathe” while he was being murdered by a Minneapolis police officer has resounded through the country, the physician’s role has seemed less clear. Police brutality against black people, and the systemic racism of which it is but one lethal manifestation, is a festering public health crisis. Can the medical profession use the tools in its armamentarium to address this deep-rooted disease? Evans et al. explore this further in an Editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. -
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 Article“Structural racism” refers to the ways in which historical and contemporary racial inequities in outcomes are perpetuated by social, economic, and political systems, including mutually reinforcing systems of health care, education, housing, employment, the media, and criminal justice. It results in systemic variation in opportunity according to race or ethnic background — for example, in racial differentials in access to health care. Ansell et al. use the case study of a 60-year-old Black woman with breast cancer as an example of structural racism and propose three critical strategies for addressing structural racism in health care. These strategies hinge on shifting the focus of work on racial differences in health outcomes from biologic or behavioural problems to the design of health care organisations and other social institutions.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic clearly illustrates the intersection of structural racism, social risk factors, and health. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on COVID-19 infection and mortality rates show high incidences in specific geographic regions. Further investigation within Louisiana revealed that rates of hospitalisation and death in Black patients were twice as high as would be expected on the basis of demographic representation. It has been hypothesised that increased exposure to COVID-19 among Black Americans is attributable to greater representation in service occupations and a greater likelihood of living in inner cities with high population density.
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Content Article
Stolen breaths (16 July 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Improving patient safety
In this perspective for the New England Journal of Medicine, Harderman et al. recommend that healthcare systems engage, at the very least, in five practices to dismantle structural racism and improve the health and well-being of the black community and the country. -
Content ArticleBlack, Latinx, and Native Americans are experiencing disproportionate burdens of infections, hospitalisations, and deaths from COVID-19. Similar disparities are observed in other countries where minority groups face hurdles in accessing health, education, and social services as well as affordable, healthy food. These stark manifestations of health inequities have emerged in the wake of a body of evidence linking obesity and obesity-related chronic diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease — conditions that disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations — with severe outcomes from COVID-19. Though the factors underlying racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 in the United States are multifaceted and complex, long-standing disparities in nutrition and obesity play a crucial role in the health inequities unfolding during the pandemic.
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Content ArticleAs the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 has reached phase 3 clinical trials, concerns are increasing about the low rates of trial participation in important subgroups, including Black communities. Recent data show that although Black people make up 13% of the US population, they account for 21% of deaths from COVID-19 but only 3% of enrollees in vaccine trials. This problem threatens both the validity and the generalisability of the trial results and is of particular concern in vaccine trials, in which differences in lifetime environmental exposures can result in differences in immunologic responses that could affect both safety and efficacy. Despite long-standing calls from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to improve the participation of underrepresented subgroups in drug trials, the problem persists. Warren et al., in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, explore what the barriers are to greater participation of Black people in COVID-19 trials.
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Content ArticleAppalling racial inequities in health exist in nearly every realm that researchers have examined. These inequities are a dramatic manifestation of the structural violence that plagues our society. Deborah Cohan, an obstetrician, gives her perspective on this in her article in the New England Journal of Medicine. "How am I confronting the underlying forces that facilitate increased suffering and death among certain groups because of their skin color? Although it’s necessary, it is not enough for me to provide respectful health care to pregnant women of color. If I truly want to be part of the solution, I need to explore those parts of me that are most unwholesome, embarrassing, unflattering, and generally not discussed in the context of one’s career." Her goal is to dismantle the insidious thoughts that reinforce a hierarchy based on race, education, and other markers of privilege that separate her from others. "These thoughts, fed by implicit bias, are more common than I find easy to admit. Although I know not to believe everything I think, I also know that thoughts guide attention, and attention guides actions. Until I bring to light and hold myself accountable for my own racist tendencies, I am contributing to racism in health care."
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Content ArticleDisparities in healthcare exist because of socioeconomic factors, structural racism and implicit bias. The panelists in this video identify the problems and discuss what solutions are in place that could improve health disparities such as medical education, more training for underrepresented minority physicians, more funding for research, and fast-tracking publication of research. Furthermore, the panelists explore how the field of dermatology and other medical specialties can address these issues.
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Content ArticleThis report is the product of a review by Baroness Doreen Lawrence, commissioned by the Labour Party, into the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. In her introduction to the report, Baroness Lawrence says: "Black, Asian and minority ethnic people have been overexposed, under protected, stigmatised and overlooked during this pandemic – and this has been generations in the making. The impact of Covid is not random, but foreseeable and inevitable – the consequence of decades of structural injustice, inequality and discrimination that blights our society. We are in the middle of an avoidable crisis. And this report is a rallying cry to break that clear and tragic pattern."
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Content Article
Independent Living: Keeping in touch (14 October 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
In this article for Independent Living, Philip Anderson reflects on the significance of touch, and possible impact of COVID-19 for those who are deprived of touch. Philip is an advocate for barrier-free accessibility, equality, and inclusiveness for persons with disabilities. He is involved in several initiatives in the NHS, and with various disability, and accessibility advisory groups.
