Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
A damning new study has revealed “stark ethnic inequalities” in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), harming the health of millions of patients belonging to ethnic minorities.
The review of 10 years of healthcare research, published on Monday, points to “vast” and “widespread” inequalities in every aspect of healthcare it reviewed, including mental healthcare, maternal and neonatal healthcare, digital access to health services, and the ethnic minority staff of the NHS.
According to Press TV, commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory, it reveals how racism, racial discrimination, barriers to accessing healthcare and ethnicity data collection have “negatively impacted” the health of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in England for years.
“Ethnic inequalities in health outcomes are evident at every stage throughout the life course, from birth to death,” says the review.
However, despite “clear”, “convincing” and “persistent” evidence that ethnic minorities are being failed, and repeated pledges of action, no “significant change” has yet been made in the NHS, it adds.
Dr. Habib Naqvi, the Director of NHS Race & Health Observatory, was quoted as saying the study made a “clear and overwhelming case for radical action on race inequity” in Britain’s healthcare system.
“It is clear that existing evidence on the stark health inequalities faced by ethnic minority communities has not led to significant change,” Naqvi stressed.
“This report is the first of its kind to analyse the overwhelming evidence of ethnic health inequality through the lens of racism,” he added.
The report reveals wide pay gap between the white and “black, Asian mixed and other groups” of working staff in the NHS.
It also finds that General Practitioners (GP) were less likely to refer ethnic minority patients to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) program compared to white patients.
