Exclusive: Health secretary and NHS England chief warn of winter pressures and rising levels of abuse

Study commissioned by NHS finds that sickle cell disease care lags behind that for conditions such as cystic fibrosis People living with sickle cell disease face substandard care as its treatment significantly lags behind advances relating to other genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis, a report has found. The study, commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory and carried out by researchers at Imperial College London, analysed various measures of care for sickle cell disease between 2010 and 2024, including clinical trials, approved drugs and reviews of existing studies. Continue reading...

Victor Adebowale says failure to detect his mother’s cancer was example of ‘black service, not NHS service’ A senior figure in the health service has criticised it for deep-seated racism after his mother “got a black service, not an NHS service” before she died. Victor Adebowale, the chair of the NHS Confederation, claimed his mother Grace’s lung cancer went undiagnosed because black people get “disproportionately poor” health service care. Black British mothers are up to four times more likely to die during pregnancy or within six weeks of giving birth than white mothers. Those of black and African or Caribbean origin are twice as likely to have a stroke, and younger, than white counterparts. Black African patients are two and a half times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white British patients. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis exposes lack of action taken despite major reports published over the past 40 years * Five years on from Black Lives Matter, has the UK made progress on ethnic equalities? Only a third of the recommendations from major reports commissioned to tackle endemic racism in the UK over the past 40 years have actually been implemented, a Guardian investigation has found. The Guardian’s analysis – published ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Black Lives Matter protests – has led experts involved in some of those inquiries to demand the government break the “doom loop” of inaction. Continue reading...

‘Shocking blind spot’ in data collection comes despite ‘well-documented racial disparities in maternity care’ The NHS is facing criticism for not recording the ethnicity of people who sue it over poor maternity care, despite black, Asian and minority ethnic women experiencing much greater harm during childbirth. Health experts, patient safety campaigners and lawyers claim racial disparities in maternity care are so stark that NHS bodies in England must start collating details of people who take legal action to help ensure services improve. Continue reading...

Racial inequity affects the whole of society, and tackling it means listening to the voices of as many people as possible, write Habib Naqvi, chief executive of NHS Race and Health Observatory and Sam...

with Prof. Habib Naqvi MBE , Dr. Ramya Sheni, Ashitha Nagesh and Dr. Devina Maru

Racism is a scar on society. Social justice requires that we take the necessary action to deal with it and its effects on health. It is a profound injustice if the conditions for good health are unequ...