Diversity and equality in the NHS
The latest issue of Healthcare Leader look at diversity and equality, or the lack thereof, in the NHS. In her editorial, deputy editor Angela Sharda addresses the equality issues in the health service that still need to be addressed, including the pay gap between white and BME members of staff.
In one of our main features we examine How much progress has been made on race equality in the NHS? Healthcare Leader reporter Valeria Fiore examines where we are with advances against the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES), three years after its implementation. The feature tackles areas such as the representation of ethnic minorities in senior leadership positions in the NHS, and what action has been taken to actively promote diversity in the health service since WRES came into force in 2015.
Our diversity-focused content in this issue also includes freelance journalist Rachel Carter’s article on how commissioners can engage local communities in the battle to reduce ethnic health inequalities. Following a report by Public Health England, the article – Commissioners ‘must work with communities’ to reduce ethnic health inequalities – highlights a number of projects that actively work with ethnic minority groups to improve health and wellbeing.
Among the other content in this issue is Angela Sharda’s cover interview with former health secretary and current NHS Confederation chair Stephen Dorrell, reporter Lea Legraien’s examination of the funding crisis in adult social care, and her feature on what can be done to improve access to mental health treatments and reduce waiting times.
The most recent issue of Healthcare Leader also features interviews with NHS Leadership Academy managing director Stephen Hart and Jane Dacre, former president of the Royal College of Physicians.