October is Black History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions of Black communities, reflect on the challenges that still exist, and renew our commitment to equality and inclusion.

At St Wilfrid’s Hospice, we believe everyone should be able to access compassionate, high-quality end of life care when they need it. To help us achieve this, we have been working hard to better understand the communities we serve and identify where there may be inequalities in access to our services.

We are pleased to share that we now hold demographic data for around 58% of people using our services, giving us an increasingly clear picture of who we support and where we may need to go further.

Our latest data shows:

• 81.94% of patients are recorded as White
• 13.3% of patient records do not currently include ethnicity information
• A further 0.17% declined to state their ethnicity
• Patients from Black, Asian, Mixed and Other ethnic backgrounds account for approximately 4.59% of all patients

When compared with local Census data, which suggests that around 9% of people living in our local area are from minority ethnic communities, this indicates that people from these communities may be under-represented among those accessing hospice services.

While incomplete data may account for some of this difference, it is important that we understand whether there are barriers preventing people from accessing the support they need.

Research has shown that people from minority ethnic communities can face barriers to accessing healthcare services, including lack of awareness of available support, cultural misconceptions about hospice care, language barriers, and concerns about whether services will understand and respect their needs.

By understanding who is and isn’t accessing our services, we can take action to ensure our care is accessible, welcoming and responsive to all members of our community.

Over the coming year, we will focus on:

• Improving the completeness and accuracy of ethnicity data collected at referral and admission.
• Developing stronger relationships with local Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
• Listening to community voices to better understand experiences and potential barriers to accessing hospice care.
• Continuing to promote a culture of inclusion where every patient and family feels respected, valued and welcome.
• Introducing myth busting to our Compassionate Conversations workshops to help break down barriers to hospice care. These workshops are widely available to all in our community, and feedback from them helps to shape our future community engagement work addressing health inequity.

By continuing to listen, learn and improve, we can help ensure that our hospice services truly reflect and support the whole community.