PRESS RELEASE+ REPORT: Better BME recruitment key to improving patient care and cutting costs
Written by admin on Monday, June 25, 2007 10:57
Major report on pioneer trusts urges reforms
For immediate release.
Contact: Jack O'Sullivan, Race for Health, 01608 737125/ 07779 655585
A recruitment drive in black and minority ethnic communities would improve patient care, cut costs and increase skills among NHS staff, according to a major report published today.
It sets out ways for trusts to increase the employment of such staff with pre-recruitment support, better information on access to jobs, plus help for those with overseas qualifications. Using BME recruits for new specialist services aimed at their communities would also raise employment and improve health outcomes for these communities, says the report.
The 64-page report* is published by the Department of Health-sponsored Race for Health programme, tasked by the Government to innovate, in 15 pioneer primary care trusts (detailed below), ways to improve healthcare and NHS employment for BME communities.
It explains how a more diverse workforce can provide better information on local health needs. This is vital if the NHS is to tackle the health deficit for BME communities in which, for example, south Asian people are 50 per cent more likely to die prematurely from coronary heart disease than are the general population.
The study, marking the 5th anniversary of the foundation of Race for Health, warns that without decisive action on NHS employment, disillusionment could set in among BME communities, which will provide half the growth in Britain's working population by 2010.
Today's report follows last year's Healthcare Commission study showing that most NHS trusts had not met the legal requirement to publish on their websites details of ethnic monitoring of employment. Today's report says that, although almost 14 per cent of NHS staff come from BME communities, only three out 400 directors of nursing are black and there are just four black chief executives in NHS.
Professor Helen Hally, National Director of the Race for Health programme, said:
"Our report shows that BME communities are still poorly represented within the NHS, particularly at the top. Our PCTs have developed new ways to tackle this problem which would otherwise risk damaging the health service's reputation, costing money and slowing innovation in service delivery. These innovations must now be rolled out across the NHS."
Surinder Sharma, National Director of the Department of Health's Equality and Human Rights Group said:
"Today's NHS has a responsibility to reflect the population it serves. The NHS workforce should be representative of patients and service users and the Department of Health is fully committed to ensuring there are people from diverse backgrounds at all levels of the service, including more Black and minority ethnic people in senior positions."
Successful measures taken by the 15 pioneer trusts * * (named below) include:
- South Birmingham PCT set up a special Access to Employment service to help skill up local people for health employment and to navigate their way to finding NHS jobs.
- Bristol PCT used 30 volunteer mentors to help BME people at all skill levels to succeed in the NHS.
- Westminster PCT funded a local voluntary organisation, the Migrant and Refugee Community Forum, to help hundreds of refugee doctors and dentists to meet UK registration requirements.
- South Birmingham PCT set up a work experience programme and provided more than 150 local teenagers from regeneration areas with NHS placements, so raising the NHS's local reputation in BME communities.
- Bradford & Airedale Teaching PCT pioneered support for local communities to complete application forms, prepare for interviews and access training.
Examples of race inequality and health include:
- Infant mortality in England and Wales for children born to mothers from Pakistan is double the average.
- Young black men are six times more likely than young white men to be sectioned for compulsory treatment under the Mental Health Act.
- South Asian people are 50 per cent more likely to die prematurely from coronary heart disease than the general population.
- The prevalence of stroke among African-Caribbean and South Asian men is 40 per cent to 70 per cent higher than for the general population
- Men and women of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are more than 6 times as likely as the general population to have diabetes.
- Ninety per cent of children in the UK have visited a dentist. This compares with approximately 40 per cent of Bangladeshi and 60 per cent of Pakistani children.
Notes for Editors:
- * 'A Guide to Policy and Good Practice for Workforce Development' is published on 25 June 2007 by Race for Health. A pdf of the guide can be downloaded from www.raceforhealth.org To obtain a printed copy, contact enquiries@raceforhealth.org or call 0161 958 4081.
- Race for Health is sponsored and funded by the Department of Health. Surinder Sharma, National Director for the Equality and Human Rights Group, is the Department of Health's sponsor. The programme is led by PCTs and it aims to create an NHS in which the health needs of black and minority ethnic people drive the services they receive. Its focus in on three key areas: workforce development, commissioning, service improvement. A board comprising PCT chairs, chief executives and other senior staff shapes the strategy for the Race for Health programme and engages with ministers, the Department of Health and NHS leaders.
- * * The Race for Health 15 pioneer primary care trusts are: Berkshire East PCT; Bradford and Airedale Teaching PCT; Bristol PCT; Ealing PCT; Haringey Teaching PCT; Lambeth PCT; Leicester City PCT; Liverpool PCT; Luton PCT; Manchester PCT; Shropshire County PCT; South Birmingham PCT; Wandsworth Teaching PCT, Westminster PCT; Wolverhampton City PCT.
Comments (0)
No comments have been made, be the first to comment!