Patients from ethnic minority backgrounds are ‘not satisfied’ with NHS primary care services, a study shows.
Research published in British Medical Journal (BMJ) Quality and Safety, found Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian and Chinese patients scored their experiences of professional communication in general practices between 6 and 9 points lower than white British patients.
In contrast, black patients scored their experiences in a similar way to white British patients.
The research notes patients from ethnic minority backgrounds are generally clustered around low performing general practices – when measured by patient satisfaction. The authors claim this goes some way to account for the low scores among such patients.
“If the overall performance of low performing practices were improved, this would also help improve the patient experience of South Asian and Chinese patients,” said the authors of the study.
As this theory does not explain the differences in patient satisfaction by race, differences in care provision have been cited as at least partly explaining some ethnic differences in primary care experiences by the study’s authors.
The study analysed data from the 2009 English General Practice Patient Survey, which included more than 8m survey participants from 8,000 general practices from across the UK.
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“Lack of self confidence plus cultural upbringing of not talking about their body.” – Puvan Markandoo, London
