Key statistics

• Ethnic inequalities in health outcomes, experiences of health care and employment in the NHS workforce are substantial and, in the main, have not changed over time.
• Ethnic minority people have an increased risk of poor health compared with white people, but there is considerable variation across groups and across particular health conditions.
• There is a substantial body of evidence demonstrating that the multidimensional social and economic inequalities experienced by ethnic minority people, including racism, make a substantial contribution to ethnic inequalities in health.
• Despite the evidence on these inequalities, the issue of ethnicity has taken a marginal position in policy work on inequalities in health, with some significant pieces of policy work almost completely neglecting ethnic inequalities in health, in part because they are often reified as reflecting biological and cultural difference. A reorientation of the public health focus to one that considers the social character of ethnicity, and the socially and economically determined nature of health, could help the development of meaningful policy in this area.
• Evidence suggests that the provision, through the NHS, of publicly funded primary care with universal access and standardised treatment protocols has resulted in equality of access and outcomes across ethnic groups.
• However, there are inequalities in access to secondary health care and dental care, and in satisfaction with care received.
• Ethnic minority people report less good experiences than White British people of almost every dimension of General Practice services.And ethnic minority people who had been diagnosed with a cancer saw their General Practitioner several more times than White British people before they were referred to a hospital.
• Stereotyping, discrimination, racism and cultural incompetence have been identified in the delivery of care across the health service.This is illustrated in the chapter using evidence in relation to severe mental illness, interpreting services and sickle cell and thalassaemia disorders.
• Ethnic minority people are over-represented in the NHS workforce, but experience marked inequalities in type and grade of employment.This is reflected in pay bands, representation among senior staff and representation on NHSTrust boards.
• Only 7% of NHSTrust board members across England are from an ethnic minority group and more than two fifths of NHS Trusts have no ethnic minority board members.(Taken from Ethnicity, Race and Inequality in the UK – State of the Nation, 2000, pp.73–74).

You can download the full report from this page: https://www.stuarthallfoundation.org/projects/shf-race-report/