The Strategy Unit June 2021
- Analysis produced for the Black Country and West Birmingham addressing the steps needed to address health inequalities.
- It covers 21 clinical areas and looks at inequalities across ethnic and socioeconomic groups. But it does so using a single outcome measure: emergency hospital admission rates. This outcome is distressing for individuals; expensive for systems; and indicative of broader problems. It simplifies inherent complexity.
- We show both the scale (numbers affected) and the degree (the relative unevenness of admission rates across subgroups) of the problem. Applying these criteria cuts through the noise often generated by the proliferation of ever-fuller data sets. It shows Black Country and West Birmingham where the gains are.
- We find that people from specific ethnic minority groups are far more likely to be discharged from hospital without a firm diagnosis coded in their record. There are many possible explanations, but we have ruled out data quality. This requires attention: ICSs cannot address what they cannot see.
