Published on 22 December 2021
Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance has launched a Health Inequalities Library to support healthcare professionals in addressing inequalities in cancer services and to improve patient experience.
Patients can face a number of barriers that lead to unfair and avoidable differences in the status of people’s health, known as health inequalities. This can include physical, psychological, financial, geographical and cultural or language barriers.
The aim of the Health Inequalities Library is to make healthcare professionals aware of these barriers by increasing transparency and to offer solutions to overcome these barriers.
The library will build up over time and will include short videos which have been co-produced by ‘experts by experience’, professionals and the Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance.
The series of short talks are being designed for healthcare professionals and aim to identify some of the barriers people may face when accessing NHS services, as well as the reasonable adjustments that must, and can, be made to support different communities.
The first video, which has been made with support from the Deafness Resource Centre in St Helens, focuses on inequalities within the deaf and hard of hearing community.
Ellie Gunner-Taylor, Macmillan Quality Improvement Officer (Patient Experience and Health Inequalities), said “We identified a need for expert voices, such as those with lived experience and professionals, to explain why it is so important for healthcare professionals to tackle health inequalities within their day-to-day working lives.
“All clinicians are incredibly busy but all want the best for their patients and these videos and resources will give practical tips, helpful advice and support to ensure every single patient they come into contact with has equal access to healthcare services.
“The NHS has equity of access to healthcare as one of its top priorities and the Health Inequalities Library will hopefully help Cheshire and Merseyside to be at the forefront of this.”
To see the library, click here - https://cmcanceralliance.nhs.uk/work/patient-experience-and-health-inequalities/health-inequalities-library