Access to and experiences of health care by ethnic minorities

Healthwatch Tameside ran a series of focus groups to understand the experiences of people from ethnic minority communities access to healthcare.  They spoke to 30 people.

There were common themes for challenges faced by ethnic communities in accessing health and care services: 

• Reduced access to GPs is exacerbated for people from ethnic communities as they may have more challenges using online or telephone access. 
• There was a lack of information provided in their first language; services do not follow the Accessible Information Standard. People had difficulty accessing quality interpreting services for medical appointments. 
• they experienced a lack of ‘cultural competence’ and a need for staff training in this area. 
• Increasing digital access provides an additional barrier to services for many, as they are not provided in the first language of many people from ethnic communities. Access to the right services is even harder if you have both a disability or long-term condition and you are from an ethnic community. 
• Ethnic communities are more likely to have delays in planned care and operations. 
• Maternity services are frequently highlighted as not meeting the needs of women from ethnic communities. 
• People from ethnic communities can be offered different treatment options such as pain management due to cultural stereotypes. People from ethnic communities are less likely to be included in clinical trials and research. 
• There is a distrust of mental health services, evidence shows a disproportionate number of people from ethnic communities are held in secure mental health wards. 
• People from ethnic communities are less likely to be referred for preventative services such as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT).