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Showing results for tags 'Health inequalities'.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought health inequalities into sharp focus. The unequal impacts of the virus are also extending inequalities in mental health. This briefing paper, produced by Centre for Mental Health and supported by 13 other national mental health charities, explores the mental health inequalities that are associated with the pandemic in the UK. It finds that the virus and the lockdown are putting greater pressure on groups and communities whose mental health was already poorer and more precarious. Groups of people whose mental health is at greatest risk include those with existing mental health problems, people with long-term physical conditions, women and children experiencing violence and abuse, and Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. The combination of existing structural inequalities and the unequal impacts of the pandemic mean that people whose mental health was at greatest risk prior to COVID-19 are likely to bear the brunt of the emergency longer term.
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Content ArticleThis editorial, published by the Lancet, highlights that racism is the root cause of continued disparities in health and mortality rates between black and white people in the USA and a global public health emergency. It discusses what medical journals can and must do to help.
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Content ArticleProfessor Donna Kinnair, the head of the Royal College of Nursing, in her blog to the Guardian talks about why the health service is failing people of colour – both those using it and its workforce. "As a black leader, you are always aware that if you are not a good role model, someone coming up behind you may not be afforded the same opportunity you’ve been given. There are, sadly, too few of us. We only have 10 black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) chief nurses across the whole of the NHS in England. The leadership of the NHS is not reflective of the workforce, or the communities we serve."
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Deaths of BAME people in police custody
Claire Cox posted an article in Prison setting
There have been about 1,500 deaths in police custody since 1990, and about one third of those who died were from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. -
Content ArticleKnight et al. in a study published in the BMJ describe a national cohort of pregnant women admitted to hospital with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the UK, identify factors associated with infection, and describe outcomes, including transmission of infection, for mothers and infants. Most pregnant women admitted to hospital with SARS-CoV-2 infection were in the late second or third trimester, supporting guidance for continued social distancing measures in later pregnancy. Most had good outcomes, and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to infants was uncommon. The high proportion of women from black or minority ethnic groups admitted with infection needs urgent investigation and explanation.
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Content ArticleCould prisons be an opportunity to address serious health inequalities? Or do they lead to worse health for people living in prison? In this podcast from the Kings Fund, Anna Charles explores the health and wellbeing of people living in prison, their access to health and care services, and what happens on release. She’s joined by: Dr Jake Hard, Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners Secure Environments Group Christina Marriott, Chief Executive Officer of Revolving Doors Chantal Edge, Public Health registrar and NIHR research fellow Kate Morrissey, National Implementation Lead for RECONNECT at NHS England and NHS Improvement.
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Choices for the “New Normal” (4 May 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
No one can say with certainty what the consequences of this pandemic will be in 6 months, let alone 6 years or 60. Some “new normal” may emerge, in which novel systems and assumptions will replace many others long taken for granted. But at this early stage, it is more honest to frame the new, post–COVID-19 normal not as predictions, but as a series of choices. In this article in JAMA, Donald Berwick proposes six properties of care for durable change: tempo, standards, working conditions, proximity, preparedness, and equity. -
Content ArticleThis perspective published in the The New England Journal of Medicine examines the problem of racial disparities and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chowkwanyun and Reed highlight the importance of viewing the data emerging from the crisis in the appropriate socioeconomic and deprivation contexts to protect against ineffective compartmentalisation of the populations being affected.
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Content ArticleAn interview with Jennifer Block, author of Everything Below The Waist: Why Health Care Needs A Feminist Revolution. This interview was published on the Hysterical Women website.
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Content ArticleAmerican women visit more doctors, have more surgery, and fill more prescriptions than men. In Everything Below the Waist, Jennifer Block asks: why is the life expectancy of women today declining relative to women in other high-income countries and even relative to the generation before them? Block examines several staples of modern women's health care, from fertility technology to contraception to pelvic surgery to miscarriage treatment and finds that while over-diagnosis and over-treatment persist in medicine generally, they are particularly acute for women. Further reading: Interview with the author
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Content ArticleFourteen years after being diagnosed with endometriosis, Gabrielle Jackson couldn't believe how little had changed in the treatment and knowledge of the disease. In 2015, her personal story kick-started a worldwide investigation into the disease by the Guardian; thousands of women got in touch to tell their own stories and many more read and shared the material. What began as one issue led Jackson to explore how women, historically and through to the present day, are under-served by the systems that should keep them happy, healthy and informed about their bodies. Further reading: Interview with the author
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Content ArticleThis is an interview with Gabrielle Jackson, author of Pain and Prejudice: A call to arms for women and their bodies, published by the Hysterical Women website. Jackson talks about her diagnosis of endometriosis, the lack of advanced medical knowledge around women's medical issues and a need for access to better treatments.
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Content ArticleEditor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with experts within and outside the medical establishment, and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today.
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Content ArticleThe Marmot Review into health inequalities in England was published on 11 February 2010. It proposes an evidence based strategy to address the social determinants of health, the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age and which can lead to health inequalities.
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Content ArticleThe Health Foundation commissioned the Institute of Health Equity to examine progress in addressing health inequalities in England, 10 years on from the landmark study Fair Society, Healthy Lives (The Marmot Review). Led by Professor Sir Michael Marmot, the review explores changes since 2010 in five policy objectives: giving every child the best start in life enabling all people to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives ensuring a healthy standard of living for all creating fair employment and good work for all creating and developing healthy and sustainable places and communities. For each objective the report outlines areas of progress and decline since 2010 and proposes recommendations for future action, setting out a clear agenda at a national, regional and local level.
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Content ArticleIt is widely known that prisons in England and Wales are crowded and facing severe difficulties, but the health and health care use of the prisoners within has received little attention. Drawing on over 110,000 patient hospital records for prisoners at 112 prisons, this study from the Nuffield Trust provides the most in-depth look to date at how prisoners’ health needs are being met in hospital.
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Content ArticlePatient experience data has long been used as a measure of quality of healthcare, but there remains a gap between measurement and improvement. The focus of the study discussed in this blog, was on understanding how staff approached patient experience projects, why some struggled, and how they made sense of the tasks.
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Content ArticleThe author of this article, published in The Guardian, argues that centuries of female exclusion has meant women’s diseases are often missed, misdiagnosed or remain a total mystery.
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Content ArticleThis report by the World Health Organization, draws attention to gender as a powerful determinant of health care access and outcomes. By analysing universal health coverage (UHC) indicators from a gender perspective, including indicators dis-aggregated by sex, the report exposes how people’s gender intersects with their socioeconomic backgrounds and other aspects of their identities and circumstances to produce health inequities. It applies gender and equity perspectives to service coverage and financial protection, two key dimensions of UHC. It concentrates on the policies and services of health systems, while acknowledging that breaking gender- and equity-related barriers requires a multisectoral approach. It shows how health systems and UHC policies, by increasing gender responsiveness, can improve equity. And it recommends ways to incorporate gender in the UHC framework for monitoring country progress.
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Content ArticleThe impact of COVID-19 on communities of colour in the US is dramatically and disproportionately affecting African-Americans most of all. The reasons are complex, with underlying health conditions (e.g., hypertension, diabetes) acting as one contributing factor. Yet, these health problems, public health experts say, largely reflect the history and ongoing realities of racism in the US that have created barriers to accessing quality health care and the conditions that can lead to better health.
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Content ArticleThe impact of the virus that causes COVID-19 could hardly be more disparate. While billions are stuck at home and restricted by social-distancing guidelines, millions of people must still put themselves and their families at risk by continuing to go to work. Millions are coping with the requirement of effectively working from home, but millions more have lost their jobs and don’t know how they will pay for housing or food. And for those who contract the virus, its effects span from nothing at all to death. Derek Feeley discusses these inequities in an article for the Institute of Healthcare Improvement.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected some sections of the population more than others, and there are growing concerns that the UK’s minority ethnic groups are being disproportionately affected. Following evidence that minority groups are over-represented in hospitalisations and deaths from the virus, Public Health England has launched an inquiry into the issue. In the short term, ethnic inequalities are likely to manifest from the COVID-19 crisis in two main ways: through exposure to infection and health risks, including mortality; through exposure to loss of income. This report brings together evidence on the unequal health and economic impacts of COVID-19 on people in minority ethnic groups in the UK, presenting information on risk factors for each of the largest minority ethnic groups in England and Wales: white other, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, black African and black Caribbean. The analysis focuses on a limited but crucial set of risk factors in terms of both infection risk and economic vulnerability in the short term.
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Content ArticleRadio 4's Women's Hour programme discusses coronavirus and the impact the current pandemic is having on access to cervical screening services. Later in the programme, the discussion turns to the topic of dealing with addiction during the lockdown. Cervical screening (listen from the start of the recording) Speakers, Kate Sanger, Head of Public Affairs at Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust, and consultant gynaecologist Dr Christine Ekechi stress that patients should not hesitate to contact their GP if they have any concerns or symptoms. Symptoms might include: abnormal bleeding, bleeding after sex, bleeding after the menopause, bleeding in between periods, unexplained pelvic pain and in some cases increased vaginal discharge. Addiction (21:45) According to the charity Action on Addiction, one in three people are addicted to something. How difficult can it be to remain sober or clean in lockdown, and what support can you still access? Speakers include Holly Sexton, Substance Misuse Practitioner at We Are With You, and Caroline Turriff, a freelance journalist who is 15 years in recovery. They discuss whether opiate painkillers and methadone being more easily available through pharmacies creates safety issues. Caroline argues that it will reduce the risk of people obtaining opiates online or heroin via street dealers which she says could enable them to obtain life-threatening amounts.
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Primary Care Women's Health Forum: Resources
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Women's health
This webpage from the Primary Care Women's Health Forum (PCWHF), contains the latest guidelines, patient materials and articles from the board alongside recommended external resources. Resources include: Intrauterine methods for all indications. How to manage contraceptive provision without face to face consultations. Having a pessary fitted for a vaginal prolapse. Advice following insertion or removal of your contraceptive implant. -
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Today, Patient Safety Learning stands with others around the world to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021. In light of this year’s campaign theme “choose to challenge” we are raising awareness of some of the ways in which male bias can negatively impact on patient safety. Drawing on case studies and quantitative research, this blog focuses on three key areas: Design – using examples to illustrate how male-centric design of equipment and medical devices affects patient safety. Data – discussing how data which does not account for differences between the sexes impacts on patient safety. Dismissal – considering the recurring theme from personal testimonials, and healthcare scandals in recent years, that women’s voices and patient safety concerns are being ignored or dismissed. We will reflect on the key patient safety issues and inequalities in each of these areas and offer our perspective on what needs to happen moving forward to prevent future avoidable harm.
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