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Showing results for tags 'Health inequalities'.
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Content ArticleHow is COVID-19 repeating patterns of existing health inequalities? What factors are driving the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on the health of ethnic minority populations? And what needs to happen next? Helen McKenna talks to Natalie Creary, Programme Delivery Director at Black Thrive, and James Nazroo, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester.
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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 ArticleFor 10 years, 29-year-old historian Robyn battled extreme endometriosis pain, but was continuously dismissed by doctors when she went to them for help. She was finally diagnosed with the condition – but five surgeries later, it was clear the damage had already been done. In this article published by Stylist, she asks why women’s health issues aren’t being taken seriously enough.
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Content ArticleIn this article, published by BBC Future, Jennifer Billock highlights the gender disparities that exist within healthcare.
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Content ArticleIn this article, published by Refinery 29, author Sarah Graham talks about gender bias in healthcare and the risk to patient safety.
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Content ArticleIn our final 2-minute Tuesday session of July 2020, Patient Safety Learning's Chief Executive, Helen discusses Baroness Cumberlege’s report ‘First Do No Harm’. She focuses on how the report amplifies the voices of women, identifying the scale and severity of harm going back decades to thousands of women. She adds: "This has been a problem hidden in plain sight that is now being exposed." Helen asks listeners whether they agree that transformational change is needed in the health and social care system to address these issues. Read more on our thoughts and the actions in response to the Cumberlege Review.
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Content ArticleIn this briefing the British Heart Foundation highlights the stark inequalities in awareness, diagnosis and treatment of heart attacks that are leading to women needlessly dying every day in the UK.
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Content ArticleThis US study, published in Pediatrics, found that even among apparently healthy children, being African American is strongly associated with a higher risk of postoperative complications and mortality. Mechanisms underlying the established racial differences in postoperative outcomes may not be fully explained by the racial variation in preoperative comorbidity.
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Content ArticleNHS Reset is an NHS Confederation campaign to help shape what the health and care system should look like in the aftermath of the pandemic. In this blog, part of a series of comment pieces from NHS Confederation members and partners, Rachel Power reflects on how COVID-19 has brought health inequalities into sharp focus and how it will take a nationwide effort to reduce them.
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NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Health inequalities
The Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) is a set of metrics that would requires NHS organisations to demonstrate progress against a number of indicators of race equality, including a specific indicator to address the low representation of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff on Boards. NHS providers are expected to show progress against a number of indicators of workforce equality, including a specific indicator to address the low numbers of BME board members across the organisation. Follow the link below to find out more about WRES and to access the annual reports. -
Content ArticleIn this podcast from TEN, Dr Shikta Das, Scientific Lead from C4X Discovery and lecturer at University College London, discusses the COVID-19 pandemic and the risks to the BAME community.
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Content ArticleGood foot health and care play an important role in improving overall health and wellbeing of the general population. However, the observations of nurses and podiatrists suggest that people experiencing homelessness, particularly rough sleepers, experience worse foot health than the wider population. This guidance, from the Queens Nursing Institute, was developed in partnership with podiatrists with experience of working with people who are homeless, and is intended as a resource for community nurses and allied health professionals. It can be used as a reference by others with an interest in the health of people who are homeless, such as hostel staff, day-centre staff and support workers.
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Content ArticlePatient safety is a quality indicator for primary care and it should be based on individual needs, and not differ among different social groups. Nevertheless, the attention on social disparities in patient safety has been mainly directed towards the hospital care, often overlooking the primary care setting. This paper, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, aims to synthesise social disparities in patient safety in the primary care setting. The results of this systematic review suggest that vulnerable social groups are likely to experience adverse patient safety events in primary care. Enhancing family doctors’ awareness of these inequities is a necessary first step to tackle them and improve patient safety for all patients. Future research should focus on social disparities in patient safety using socioeconomic indicators, such as income and education.
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Content ArticleThe aim of the study, published in the Journal of Patient Safety, was to determine whether race differences exist in voluntarily reported harmful patient safety events in a large 10 hospital healthcare system on a high reliability organisation journey. Findings showed that race differences in harmful events exist in voluntary reporting systems by type and by hospital setting. Healthcare organisations, particularly healthcare high reliability organisations, can use these findings to help identify areas of further study and investigation. Further study and investigation should include efforts to understand the root cause of the differences found in this study, including the role of reporting bias.
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Content ArticleThe goal of this US-based study, published in Psychiatric Services, was to characterise racial-ethnic differences in mental health care utilisation associated with postpartum depression in a multi-ethnic cohort of Medicaid recipients. Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with medical costs for some people with limited income and resources. Findings of the study presents evidence of low rates of postpartum depression treatment initiation and continuation, indicating barriers to care among low-income mothers; racial-ethnic disparities imply additional challenges for black women and Latinas. The presence of such disparities points to the need for clinical and institutional policies and programs to address the particular barriers to mental health care faced by black women and Latinas in the months after delivery.
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Content ArticleMore Inclusive Healthcare (MIH) works to positively impact disparities, providing customisable solutions to help teams measure and improve outcomes, enhance cultural responsiveness and strengthen the fault lines. MIH is based in the USA.
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Content ArticlePrevious studies have revealed racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in quality of care and patient safety. However, these disparities have not been examined in a paediatric inpatient environment by using a measure of clinically confirmed adverse events (AEs). In this study, the Global Assessment of Pediatric Patient Safety (GAPPS) Trigger Tool was used. The GAPPS analysis revealed racial and/or ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in rates of AEs experienced by hospitalised children across a broad range of geographic and hospital settings. Further investigation may reveal underlying mechanisms of these disparities and could help hospitals reduce harm. This study was published by US-based journal, Hospital Pediatrics.
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Content ArticleThis guidance is to support Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and NHS England in meeting their legal duties in respect of equality and health inequalities. CCGs and NHS England play key roles in addressing equality and health inequalities; as commissioners, as employers and as local and national system leaders, in creating high quality care for all.
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Content ArticleEvidence to date indicates that patients from ethnic minority backgrounds may experience disparity in the quality and safety of health care they receive due to a range of socio-cultural factors. Although heightened risk of patient safety events is of key concern, there is a dearth of evidence regarding the nature and rate of patient safety events occurring amongst ethnic minority consumers, which is critical for the development of relevant intervention approaches to enhance the safety of their care.The findings of this systematic review, published in the International Journal for Equity in Health, provide substantial evidence to suggest that people from ethnic minorities are vulnerable to a higher rate of patient safety events in the hospital and community setting compared to the mainstream population.
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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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News ArticleAfrican American children are three times more likely than their white peers to die after surgery despite arriving at hospitals without serious underlying conditions, the latest evidence of unequal outcomes in health care, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics, “We know that traditionally, African Americans have poorer health outcomes across every age strata you can look at,” said Olubukola Nafiu, the lead researcher and an anaesthesiologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “One of the explanations that’s usually given for that, among many, is that African American patients tend to have higher comorbidities. They tend to be sicker.” But his research challenges that explanation, he said, by finding a racial disparity even among otherwise healthy children who came to hospitals for mostly elective surgeries. Out of 172,549 children, 36 died within a month of their operation. But of those children, nearly half were black – even though African Americans made up 11% of the patients overall. Black children had a 0.07% chance of dying after surgery, compared with 0.02% for white children. Postoperative complications and serious adverse events were also more likely among the black patients and they were more likely to require a blood transfusion, experience sepsis, have an unplanned second operation or be unexpectedly intubated. Read full story Source: The Independent, 20 July 2020
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News Article
‘Insufficient’ national response to deaths review programme, report finds
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The latest annual report into the deaths of people with learning disabilities has criticised the “insufficient” national response to past recommendations and called for “urgent” policy changes. The national learning disabilities mortality review programme has criticised the response from national health bodies to its previous recommendations. To date, just over 7,000 deaths have been notified to the programme and reviews have been completed for just 45%. There have been four annual reports for programme to date, and in the latest published today, the authors warned: “The response to these recommendations has been insufficient and we have not seen the sea change required to reassure [families] that early deaths are being prevented." “It is long over-due that we should now have concerted national-level policy change in response to the issues raised in this report and previous others. A commitment to take forward the recommendations in a meaningful and determined way is urgently required.” The latest report also warns that black, Asian and ethnic minority children with learning disabilities die “disproportionately” younger compared to other ethnicities. It also found system problems and gaps in service provision were more likely to contribute to deaths in BAME people with learning disabilities. Read full story Source: HSJ, 16 July 2020 -
News Article
RCOG launches Race Equality Taskforce
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists ( (RCOG) has today launched a Race Equality Taskforce to better understand and tackle racial disparities in women’s healthcare and racism within the obstetric and gynaecology workforce. Addressing health inequalities is a key priority area for RCOG President Dr Edward Morris, who is co-chairing the Taskforce alongside Dr Ranee Thakar, Vice President of the RCOG, and Dr Christine Ekechi, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist and RCOG Spokesperson for Racial Equality. Statistics show, for example, that black women are five times more likely to die in pregnancy, childbirth or in the six-month postpartum period compared with White women and the risk for Asian women is twice as high. During the pandemic, 55% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with coronavirus were from a Black, Asian or other minority ethnic background despite the fact 13% of the UK population identify themselves as BAME. It is also clear that there is a significant gap in understanding the factors that result in a higher risk of morbidity and mortality for Black, Asian and other ethnic minority women in the UK. The Taskforce will collaborate with groups across healthcare and government as well as individual women to address these concerning trends and will ensure that the work of the RCOG is reflective of its anti-racist agenda. Read full story Source: RCOG, 15 July 2020 -
News Article
COVID-19: Many trusts have not done risk assessments for ethnic minority staff
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Some NHS trusts in England are yet to complete /cOVID-19 risk assessments for their staff from ethnic minority groups more than two months after the NHS first told them to do so, an investigation by The BMJ has found. On 29 April NHS England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, wrote to all NHS leaders telling them to carry out risk assessments and make “appropriate arrangements” to protect ethnic minority staff, amid growing evidence that they were at greater risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19. However, The BMJ asked England’s 140 acute care trusts for details of risk assessments they had carried out and what subsequent actions they had put in place. Seventy trusts responded. Of these, 27 (39%) said that assessments were yet to be completed for all ethnic minority staff, and 43 (61%) indicated that assessments had been completed. But the other 70 trusts were unable to provide a response within the 20 day deadline, citing “unprecedented challenges” posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is not known what stage they are at in risk assessing staff. Commenting on The BMJ’s findings, Chaand Nagpaul, the BMA’s chair of council, said, “Clearly, we know that a significant number of doctors have not been risk assessed. It is a shame that it has taken so long, because the risk assessments and mitigations would have been most useful and impactful during the peak of the virus.” Doctors’ leaders have suggested that systemic race inequalities in the workplace may have exacerbated delays in risk assessing staff. Nagpaul said, “The BMA survey found that doctors from a BAME [black, Asian, and minority ethnic] background felt under more pressure to see patients without adequate protection. So it does beg the question of whether there’s also been this added factor of BAME healthcare staff feeling unable to demand their right to being assessed and protected." “This is something the NHS needs to tackle. This is an issue that predates covid. It’s vital that we have an NHS where anyone is able to voice their concerns. No one should have to suffer or have fear in silence.” Read full story Source: The BMJ, 10 July 2020 -
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The MBRRACE-UK Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care report found that black women in the UK are five times as likely as white women to die during pregnancy or childbirth.
