August 12, 2022
Action rather than reports is needed to tackle healthcare inequalities faced by black people in Birmingham, a charity says.
It follows a report last month which found people from black communities continued to face racism and discrimination when accessing treatment.
The city’s director of public health said he was “horrified” by the finding.
Dr Justin Varney said the system must be adapted to meet the needs of all.
Charity The First Class Foundation wants to see implementation of changes and says among the healthcare problems in need of tackling are “microaggressions” faced by communities.
The review made 39 recommendations of how to tackle inequalities in the city
Birmingham is home to 8% of the black African and black Caribbean populations in England and in the city, infant deaths are at their highest when the mother was born in the Caribbean or central Africa.
Inequalities continue into education where black Caribbean children are twice as likely as their white British counterparts to be permanently excluded.
The publication of the Birmingham and Lewisham African Health Inequalities Review followed an 18-month study commissioned by the areas’ local authorities.
It found disadvantages among the communities in housing, pollution and availability of green space had “all contributed to worse health”.
The report additionally highlighted how the communities were “exposed to structural racism and discrimination which leads to… chronic stress and trauma”.
But against a backdrop of black families often being “ignored and their voices unheard”, the document also found issues when accessing healthcare too, prompting calls in the report for a review of diversity training for staff and the availability of culturally-aware services.
Charlene Taylor, from community group We are the Village, which campaigns for change in such areas, said “nothing” surprised her about the findings, adding she had encountered discrimination while training to be a nurse.
She explained racism had been “evident” but there was also “unconscious bias”, as well as a “lack of understanding of culture”. And she said she believed her experience of entering the profession mirrored difficulties black people faced in accessing hospitals or their local GP.
Nathan Dennis, of The First Class Foundation, a charity volunteer group operating in the Aston area of Birmingham, said similar.
Image caption,
Nathan Dennis wants “microaggressions” to be tackled in healthcare
“They’re going to have to invest heavily in training to help understand what are those microaggressions; what are those institutional racism things that are happening that’s making these things exist,” Mr Dennis said.
“We have to think of how can organisations be more anti-racist.”
Mr Dennis, whose group supports people experiencing barriers as a result of poor physical health, low self esteem, and difficulties in communication, concluded: “We actually don’t need any more reports, what we need is tangible action.”
Health bosses are being urged to act upon 39 recommendations in the report, including finding new ways to rebuild trust.
Dr Varney said the council was committed, alongside the NHS, to “making this real”.
An implementation board was being set up, he said, but added much of the inequality was still not measured.
He said: “We had to really hunt to find the numbers and therefore setting the trajectory of change, when we still aren’t recording ethnicity on death certificates, is really, really hard.”