Health Ombudsman says South Asian and Muslim women should complain more about NHS service The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has launched an outreach campaign to get more South Asian and Muslim women to complain when they receive a poor service from the NHS.
The Ombudsman which is the last port of call for complaints found that women from these groups where far less likely to air any grievances compared to their white counterparts.
Research carried out alongside the Muslim Women’s Network UK through focus groups in major English cities including Manchester, discovered that only 5.7% of NHS related complaints to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman came from people of Asian heritage.
This is despite the fact that 7% of England’s population is classified as Asian.
In contrast 88% of complaints came from those described as White British with the English population of the same category totalling 80%.
The main reasons behind the reluctance to complain are said to be a fear of repercussions with some women saying they were made to feel ‘inferior’ and that they ‘were in the wrong for complaining’, according to case summaries gathered.
The Health Service Commissioner for England, Dame Julie Mellor emphasised the point about disparities between different ethnicities saying: “‘We are worried that South Asian and Muslim women’s voices are going unheard because they are less likely to complain about their NHS treatment than white British women.”
Britain’s health tsar highlighted how four out of every ten people who were unhappy with a public service they had received failed to complain because they felt it will not make a difference. “We want South Asian and Muslim women to feel confident in making a complaint about their NHS treatment and to know that complaining can make a difference,” she added.
As part of an outreach campaign launched today, the ombudsman service is sending out 25,000 leaflets in five different south Asian languages – Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu – explaining how to complain about the NHS treatment.
More than 5,000 posters in six different languages are being sent to advocacy groups in the five cities including Bradford and Manchester which have a high proportion of residents from South Asian and Muslim backgrounds.
An animated advert in Hindi for Asian TV channel Star Plus which has approximately 1.3 million viewers will air for two months to further promote the campaign.
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