Patient experience report: Residents of South Asian heritage in Old Trafford

About this report

We have a duty to engage with residents whose voices often go unheard in health and social care service design and delivery.

In response to the inequalities experienced by people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, we held two focus groups to speak to people of South Asian heritage. 

Key findings

• Cultural barriers in hospital and GP services.
• Language barriers for female residents (over 50 years of age) resulting in delays to accessing GP practice appointments.
• Possible lack of awareness and knowledge among residents of patient rights to translation services. 

Recommendations 

• GP Practices to review the extent to which their existing Patient Participation Group (PPG) membership is representative of the diverse population served.
• GP Practices and hospitals to review their current patient or service user administration and record systems, platforms, processes and documentation and, if necessary, update, change or replace those systems so that they conform to the draft Quality Standards for Interpreting and Translating Service in Primary Care (NHS England, 2015).
• GP Practices and hospitals to record details of individuals’ need for foreign language interpretation or translation alongside recording of information and communication support needs in line with the Accessible Information Standards (2015).
• GP Practices and hospitals to ensure all surgery staff complete mandatory cultural awareness training, delivered where possible by local BME organisations who have good understanding of local cultures and the barriers which may prevent people from accessing services.
• Trafford CCG to support GP Practices to produce and promote accessible patient information (in hard copy and electronically available on surgery website) using appropriate languages and formats regarding services. In particular, information on patient rights to language translator services should be available in community venues as well as health services.
• Availability of online appointment bookings through GP Practice websites and the online booking process should be promoted to patients to increase awareness. It must be accessible in a range of different languages including Gujarati and Urdu.
• Improvements made in response to these recommendations should be communicated by hospital and GP services to local residents.