Equity index offers fairer care
LNWH is the first hospital trust in the country to develop a compound equity index ensuring the quality of care it offers is consistent regardless of factors, such as gender, ethnicity, disability and social and economic circumstances.
The equity index aggregates variation in care quality across 30 indicators, covering areas like safety, effectiveness, patient experience, timeliness and access.
It functions as a strategic tool monitoring the organisation’s progress towards equity highlighting both progress and areas requiring attention. This methodology is supported by thorough statistical analysis, ensuring that the index reflects genuine and significant disparities in equity.
These insights then help inform and drive improvements in service delivery.
Pippa Nightingale, Chief Executive of LNWH Trust, said: “The reality, much as we might not like to admit it, is that care is not always equitable and there are people out there who aren’t getting the treatment they need.
“There can be a multitude of reasons behind this, and the new indicator will allow us to clearly see how, where, when and who. It is a necessary but also rather painful tool of self-examination but-we can’t fix what we can’t see.
The pandemic starkly highlighted inequalities in some areas of healthcare and this is a positive step in the right direction.”
The trust, which delivers care to more than 1.5m people living across north-west London, has one of the most ethnically diverse communities and workforces in the UK with a huge gap between the haves and have nots.
Initial findings include people from deprived areas are less likely to be screened for bowel cancer, deprived patients are less likely to complain, younger patients are more likely to not attend video appointments and older patients and pre-school infants facing longer waiting times than young adults.