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 | |  | 10 November 2009 |
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| | | 10 November 2009 |
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In 1994, the Minister of Health at the Scottish Office in 'Access to Healthcare by Ethnic Minority Communities: A Guide to Good Practice' declared that '... Scotland is a multi-racial and multi-cultural society and the NHS needs to be aware of, and be sensitive to the many traditions, cultures, and religious practices which exists, in order to meet the health needs of the population'.
There then followed a period of gradual proliferation of initiatives to improve service access and outcomes for black and ethnic minority groups. Unfortunately, time-limited funding dogged these initiatives, which led eventually to the departure of most of the 'champions'.
Then in 1997 at the International (UK/US) Conference on race and health, the Secretary of State for Health signed a joint agreement to collaborate with the United States Health Department to improve the health of ethnic minority citizens. This commitment additionally led to the establishment of the London Black and Ethnic Minority Network and the identification of lead officers in all regional offices charged with promoting and co-ordinating the 'ethnic health agenda' in their area. Also in parallel, the Department of Health commissioned a Study of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Issues with a view to establishing the extent and nature of the problems and what the Department has been doing to address them.
As co-partners with the UK in the collaboration with the United States, the Scottish Executive Health Department has been actively 'stocktaking' their developments in this field.
In 1998, the then Minister for Health at the Scottish Office challenged the National Health Service to do more to meet the health and healthcare needs of ethnic minority groups in Scotland.
Two years after the Minister's challenge, the Scottish Executive Health Department commissioned a National Stocktake or audit of existing policies and practises of Boards and Trusts in relation to ethnic minority groups.
This report presents the finding of the audit and outlines the support which the NHS organisations feels would enable them to progress work in this field.
For the purpose of this report, Ethnic Minority relates to all subgroups of the population not indigenous to the UK who hold cultural traditions and values derived, at least in part, from their countries of origin. The term Black refers to those members of the ethnic minority groups who are differentiated by their skin colour or physical appearance, and may therefore feel some solidarity with one another by reason of past or current experience, but who may have many different cultural traditions and values.
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