No wi-fi is 'health barrier' for ethnic minorities
PA MediaA lack of wi-fi to use translate services to access basic health care services is one of the major barriers affecting ethnic minority communities in north and west Cumbria, according to a new report.
Dr Faisal Solkar told Cumberland Council's health and wellbeing board that "language barriers and trust issues" has lead to an overuse of accident and emergency among ethic minority communities.
The Health Needs Assessment: Ethnic Minorities 2025 report also listed perception of care, navigation and awareness issues, service availability and service accessibility as other barriers.
Dr Solkar, who carried out the research, said: "Language remains a significant barrier in health care."
The report also stated the maternal mortality rate in black and mixed ethnicity groups was three times higher than in white communities.
The five core recommendations in the report were:
- Improve communication and information access
- Expand interpretation services
- Require ethnicity data collection across all health and social care settings
- Increase access to preventative care
- Adopt patient-centred approaches
In addition, there were three supporting recommendations which were to introduce multi-lingual booking systems, provide digital access support and strengthen community engagement, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
In response to language barriers, Colin Cox, the council's director of public health, customer and community wellbeing, said the latest generation of iPhones had simultaneous translation apps.
"We've got that technology available to us and we've got to be investing in it," he admitted.
Councillor Elaine Lynch suggested a pilot scheme could be introduced at a Carlisle medical practice to help tackle language issues.
Members noted the report and agreed the communication and translation pilot should be explored further.