Introduction - Addressing Healthcare Disparities for Ethnic Minorities
There are significant inequalities that are administered between the health status belonging to the different ethnic groups of the UK and the people who belong to different minority backgrounds. At the same time, they are also experiencing worse health equality as compared to their white peers within the same society. As per the recent records and the data obtained from the case study, there is a significant lack of evidence on the lives of the ethnic minority groups and the significant changes in the circumstances of the ethnic minority people in their later lives (theguardian.com, 2022). Right from the early exposure to the serious threats of coronavirus, it is evident that individuals who are from the group of black and south-Asian ethnic backgrounds fall under the criteria of greater risks of dying as compared to their white peers. The case study is going to provide an analysis of the social disparities that are being laid in between the BAME people and that of the white people of the society. Additionally, it is going to lay emphasis on the linkage to the chronic health conditions that are associated with the higher risks of death. The study is going to explore the different facts of the case study by giving a brief outline of the overall issue followed by a discussion of the issue and its implications with the different stakeholders and by giving a justified solution that the UK government might take in order to remove the health inequalities among the minor groups of people. Moreover, the study is also going to provide a summary of the entire study at the end.
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From the case study, it is prevalent that health inequalities are considered to be a major factor in the UK context and it has experienced these disparities in an unprecedented fashion. As per the recent report, it is evident that the minor ethnic groups are most likely to suffer from the serious threats of chronic health conditions including type-2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. In this context, the BAME people have more precedent towards the serious threats of health illness as compared to that of the white British people. As per the opinion of Bambra et al. (2020), people who are suffering from diabetes and are obese are considered to have a greater risk of death from the deadly COVID-19. The study also identified that people who belong to the ethnic minority group are at a higher risk of acquiring the virus since the people belonging to this sector are living in socially deprived areas. In addition to that, this area is also considered to be a lesser-income group and these sorts of areas are considered to be areas that have lesser access to healthy foods and a society with a low-income status (McKee et al. 2021).
The questions arise as to why the BAME people are more prevalent with health inequalities and why they are more prone to chronic disease as well as other sorts of diseases. The case study also depicted that the people who are dwelling within the lower minor groups are more likely to experience poor GP surgery (theguardian.com, 2022). It is understood that the lower minor groups are not involved or rather concerned with innovative services that will meet the basic needs of the people who are dwelling in this stage. As per the viewpoints of Williams and Fullagar (2019), there is a segregation between the class of individuals belonging to the minor group and to the ones who are belonging to the higher social groups that are the white peers of the society. The basic initiative that needs to be considered by most of the stakeholders in order to overcome the challenges that the minor group is facing from society is to improve their health status as well as to consider them as a major part of society and not to consider them as a minor group and provide them the support in time needs (gov.uk, 2022).
Discussion
The first and foremost issue that is more prevalent among the minor groups belonging to the UK context is that the people who are affected by obesity and diabetes are more likely to lose their lives due to the serious threat of the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey also reported that the people who belong to the minor groups or more precisely the BAME people are more likely to acquire the deadly virus and they are significantly losing their lives due to improper healthcare services that are provided to them. It is argumentative that why the people belonging to beam backgrounds are more likely to suffer from these conditions and it has been reported that since they belong from socially deprived areas and usually from a less income group the airport they don't even have proper healthy food access and at the same time they are not maintaining a decent quality of life proper sanitation is being impacted as well. As per the opinion of McGrail et al. (2022), in order to standardize the minor group of people living in the UK context, they must introduce a minimum income for healthy living as well asked also to turn measures to ensure a better welfare system that will provide sufficient income for healthy living as well as reduces the stigma for the recipient by the improvement of the universal provision in food as per their needs.
As per the opinion of Bambra (2022), health inequality is considered to be avoidable, systematic as well as unfair differences that are created in health between the different groups of people developing within the same society. Many kinds of health inequalities can be administered and many ways in which the term can be used. Moreover, the National Health Services (NHS), as a major stakeholders introduced a long-term plan in order to eliminate the inequalities among the people belonging to minor groups and these include basic 5-year funding allocations to local areas using a more accurate assessment of health inequalities and the basic needs which are not met within the society (gov.uk, 2022). It is evident that the minor group of people are not properly getting the needs and the outbreak of the pandemic has resulted in a more critical situation for the BAME resulting in the constant loss of their lives. The NHS is taking strict measures in setting out specific and measurable goals that would be effective in order to remove and narrow down the inequalities as well as in order to reduce the level of poverty among individuals.
The action has been taken place by the National Health Service of the UK through the implementation of an integrated care system as well as integrated care partnership. It is mainly place-based partnership and inverse people working with the community as well as bringing health, social care, and public health all together in order to implement the strategy as well as a plan that can address the basic needs of the local system (gov.uk, 2022).
The other issue that is evident after the survey is that people belonging to this sector are often suffering from chronic health conditions as they are unable to maintain a decent quality of life and their health condition is greatly impacted by their ethnicity. The people belonging to this group are not even getting enough support in order to mitigate their local needs to help manage their health condition making them less confident about their health as compared to their white peers in British society (Carmichael et al. 2022). The national survey has also found that people who are from the beam background are often rejected from getting the Covid 19 vaccine as compared to the white British society. It has also been noticed that even the Office for National Statistics has also administered that they have to work for longer hours during the curse period of the pandemic and they are not even eligible to stay at home safe when the entire locality is undergoing the phases of lockdowns (theguardian.com, 2022).
Therefore, moving on to the pandemic it is important for the government to take certain initiatives in order to have a look over the health services that are offered to the people in order to meet their basic needs. Moreover, in order to improve the health condition as well as to eliminate the inequalities among the people of the same society it is needed to be indulged in the minds of the general population that they are culturally as well as linguistically inclusive and they are part of the community (Stennett and Tsakos, 2022). Therefore, the government is taking a major step in rebuilding trust within the health system among the people who belong to these backgrounds as well as taking the initiative in order to listen to them and provide them the support in order to eliminate the health inequalities from the society (gov.uk, 2022). The NHS also remains operational and acts as a planning guidance in order to build on previous guidance to prevent eel health and tracheal inequalities, particularly in the light of Covid 19 pandemic eat has brought these proportions and impact on Saturn population growth that is facing highly discriminated and are the disadvantages position. In order to provide healthcare support, the government of the UK passed the Health and Care Act of 2022 and the Social Care Act of 2022 which became functional in proposing health reforms in the major parts of England (Mishra et al. 2021). The principles of the Act were established to bring improvement in health outcomes by joining NHS as well as the social and public healthcare services by means of tackling health inequalities.
In order to become successful in implementing the strategy for removing health inequalities from society, the principles of the Health belief model can be used in order to provide them with a guide regarding health promotion as well as disease prevention programs (Suess et al. 2022). The responsible model is mainly used to explain as well as predict certain individual changes in health behavior and it is also a widely used model for understanding the basic requirements of the local population. As per the guidelines that are being provided by the respective model, the people belonging to the sector are more likely to get good local health services in order to manage their health condition and they may feel confident regarding their own health as well. The government of the UK must take the initiative in order to focus on improving vaccine confidence as well as to promote vaccine uptake among ethnic minorities to fight the deadly Covid 19 infection (gov.uk, 2022). Tracking with the higher levels of COVID-19 infection they should take initiatives such as encouraging them to take up their vaccines to lessen the serious threats of the viruses.
Conclusion
On a concluding note, it can be summarized that the health inequalities among the people belonging to the group of minorities, it is considered to be a major issue that the present society of the UK is facing. The outbreak of the pandemic has affected minorities to a certain limit and it is being noticed that the individuals belonging to this sector are facing more issues as they are not getting their healthcare needs and they are remaining isolated from society. In order to provide the ultimate support to the people belonging to the minorities the UK must take initiative to recover the health system as well as in driving the forwarded transformation of service that will improve the health as well as social care outcomes. In order to uplift the condition of the healthcare status of the UK, the government must reinvest in healthcare services and must consider the BAME people under the same phase as people from the whites. Rebuilding trust in the healthcare sector is considered to be a strategy in order to ensure that minorities are also a part of the chosen community.
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