Black and ethnic minority people are underrepresented in virtual patient cohorts.

Targeted research needed to understand the barriers to access.

I'm James MacDonald with news that an NHS England analysis of virtual wards has found that black and ethnic minority people are underrepresented in patient cohorts. The evaluation has been published as the NHS plan to increase access to virtual wards. The report calls for “targeted research to understand the barriers to access”, noting that black and minority ethnic people are “consistently underrepresented in virtual ward patient cohorts”.It adds that there are “significant gaps in ethnicity data recorded in patient level data”. The Race Equality Foundation have said “with the rise in virtual wards, this evidence is worrying”. 

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