The UK government’s failure to record and publish real-time data on the ethnicity of COVID-19 patients is a scandal that is endangering lives. The Guardian reports that this is according to the chair of the British Medical Association, Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “This is not an issue that should require further campaigning. It would be a scandal if it requires further lobbying as data recording needs to start now, not tomorrow. When you have stark statistics like this, it is an instruction for government to act.”
Hospitals are not currently required to record the ethnicity of any patients who are admitted, fall critically ill or die. There have been more than 15,000 hospital deaths in the UK with the virus, but an independent study of the first 5,578 patients has shown that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting ethnic minorities.
While black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) workers represent 44% of the National Health Service (NHS) workforce, they accounted for 68% of the 57 NHS staff known to have died with the virus. Every one of the 14 doctors reported to have died so far is from an ethnic minority.
The report says the Department of Health and Social Care agreed to launch a formal pandemic review on black, Asian and minority ethnic BAME deaths to be led by NHS England and Public Health England (PHE).
Nagpaul said the review was welcome, but that the government could immediately instruct all hospitals to record the ethnicity of patients.
NHS England figures reveal that, of the 13,918 patients in hospital who tested positive for COVID-19 up to 17 April, 16.2% were of BAME background despite these communities making up only around 13% of the total population. The Daily Telegraph reports that statistics emerged three days after the government ordered a review into why BAME patients appear to be disproportionately vulnerable to the virus.
Those who identified themselves as being of Indian heritage made up the single worst affected group, accounting for 3% of COVID-19 hospital deaths, with those from the Caribbean the next largest group, accounting for 2.9%.
The report says despite only accounting for 13% of the population in England and Wales, 44% of all NHS doctors and 24% of nurses are from a BAME background. Of the 54 frontline health and social care workers in England and Wales that have died from COVID-19, 70% were black or from an ethnic minority.
[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/18/failure-to-record-ethnicity-of-covid-19-victims-a-scandal-says-bma-chief"]Full report in The Guardian[/link]
[link url="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/20/bame-patients-face-disproportionately-high-risk-death-coronavirus/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1238367&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FAM_New_ES&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_FAM_New_ES20200421&utm_campaign=DM1238367"]Full report in The Daily Telegraph[/link]
SEE also
[link url="https://www.medicalbrief.co.za/archives/ethnicity-as-a-factor-in-vulnerability-to-covid-19/"]Ethnicity as a factor in vulnerability to COVID-19[/link]