Teather Reports Health Trust To Race Watchdog

12.01.00am GMT Mon 5th Mar 2007

Sarah Teather is taking a stand against crippling cuts to local NHS services

Sarah Teather, Brent's Liberal Democrat MP, has reported Brent tPCT to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) for failing to conduct a Race Equality Impact Assessment on health cuts that are likely to fall disproportionately on Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities.

Sarah has regularly spoken in parliament of the tPCT's estimated £53million deficit, and the devastating effect this will have on patient care in the borough. Now, Sarah has defended the rights of her constituents by asking the CRE to investigate whether the tPCT has broken its legal obligation to promote race equality, by failing to follow the stipulated Race Equality Scheme.

Areas facing cuts that could particularly impact on BME communities include:

• Pregnancy and sexual health advice. Teenage pregnancy rates are high amongst young people in BME groups in Brent and this has been identified as a priority in the Borough's teenage pregnancy and parenthood strategy;

• School nurse provision: 70% of the children in Brent schools are from BME communities;

• Dietetics and diabetes services: Diabetes is particularly prevalent amongst Asian communities;

• Interpretation services: Brent has a transient population, with many recent migrants and many long standing immigrants who need help with English;

In many other areas, it is impossible to assess the impact of the cuts, because no information has been published relating to the kinds of individuals using local health services, and no race equalities impact assessment has been conducted.

Local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East, Sarah Teather, said:

"Here in Brent we are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse communities in Britain. Yet the tPCT has completely overlooked this in their crippling programme of cuts to our local services.

"Patricia Hewitt and the Labour Government are holding a gun to the head of Brent tPCT, who in turn are scrambling to make cuts, without thinking through the consequences. The most frustrating thing about many of the cuts is that they are to the very services that prevent people getting ill in the first place.

"Everyone who uses our local NHS will be affected. But the cuts will be felt particularly hard in the Black and Ethnic Minority communities who depend on many of the vital services up for the chop.

"The tPCT's short term slash and burn policy will have a devastating long term impact. Decades of work reaching out to hard to reach groups in Brent's diverse communities is now threatened.

"The tPCT must come clean immediately and promise to implement a full assessment of the impact of their cuts on racial equality. It is unacceptable for our BME communities to bear the brunt of this Government's financial mismanagement of the health service."

Notes:

The CRE are already investigating the Department of Health in the area of mental health provision.

Sarah Teather MP wrote to Nigel Webb, Chief Executive of Brent tPCT, and Nick Johnson of the Commission for Racial Equality on 1st March 2007.