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NSF for older people

Consider the health of ethnic minority elders

From Mr H. Patel, FRPharmS

The National Service Framework for Older People is about respecting diversity, including ethnic diversity. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee have no policies that respect diversity, in my view. But pharmacy has an obligation to take seriously this strand of the Government's thinking and to help prevent inequalities in health growing in the future.

There are ethnic differences in health, health behaviours and service use. Most importantly, projections of the changes in population structures and service use that will occur over the next decade indicate that services must be configured to respond to ethnic minorities as well as the most vulnerable subgroups within these groups.

With the publication of the NSF, there is an opportunity to review the accessibility of pharmacy services as much as the premises. For example, is the information provided in English understood by all ethnic minority people, especially older people? If not, then what are the chances of correct diagnosis, prescribing and dispensing producing concordance and improvements in health?

I would like to be in a position whereby I can confidently assure carers and ethnic minority elders that pharmacy will cater for their needs. But I cannot.

The health of ethnic minority elders needs to be considered by pharmacy researchers, academics and policy leaders, in consultation with a range of groups, including community groups, voluntary organisations, public sector staff and other academics and researchers working on these issues. The question that needs to be answered is: “Can pharmacy provide solutions to problems that require imaginative responses to ensure that pharmacy services are acceptable and sensitive to cultural contexts?”

The issue of reducing inequalities also demands urgent attention and observable deeds from politicians and practitioners.

Hemant Patel
Secretary
Barling & Havering and Redbridge & Waltham Forest Local Pharmaceutical Committees
Essex

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