NHS inclusion and monitoring

9 January 2013

The Irish Traveller Movement In Britain have commissioned a report 'Inclusion and ethnic monitoring of Gypsies and Travellers in the National Health Service'. This 14 page report aims to 'establish how many Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England conduct ethnic monitoring of Gypsies and Travellers and how aware and inclusive they are of Gypsies and Travellers health needs'.

A summary of the 3 main recomendations made by the ITMB (found on page 13 of the report) are:

  1. The Department of Health should modify the way that it collects data so that Gypsies, Roma and Travellers are counted like other 'ethnic' goups.
  2. The Department of Health should develop a national Gypsy, Roma, Traveller health strategy.
  3. The Department of Health should give guarantees that Local Authorities establishing Health and Wellbeing Boards include Gypsies and Travellers as key stakeholders.

In detail these 3 recomendations say:

'The DH should issue a national ‘data change notice’ to include Gypsies, Roma and Travellers alongside the 16+1 other ethnic categories which are monitored by the NHS. This would bring the NHS in line with Gypsy and Traveller inclusion in the 2011 census.'

'ITMB strongly urge the Government and DH to develop a national Gypsy, Roma, Traveller health strategy in line with the European Commission’s National Roma Integration Strategies for all EU member states. Developing a strategy would enable the Government to avail of specific EC funding to support Gypsy, Roma and Traveller initiatives. It would also provide a joined up approach to other issues that impact on Gypsies and Travellers health outcomes such accommodation and education.'

'The DH should give guarantees that Local Authorities establishing Health and Wellbeing Boards include Gypsies and Travellers as key stakeholders. The DH also need to ensure that these communities are properly engaged and consulted in all Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. Utilising and building upon emerging health data on Gypsies and Travellers from the 2011 Census would be a good starting point.'

Download the complete text of the report in PDF format from The Irish Traveller Movement In Britain Website

Background to this issue:

'Despite a lack of national data on the health status of Gypsies and Travellers, studies have revealed their health outcomes to be much poorer than the general population and also poorer than others in socially deprived areas. A 2012 report by the Ministerial Working Group on tackling inequalities experienced by Gypsies and Travellers confirmed that they have the lowest life expectancy of any group in the UK and continue to experience high infant mortality rates, high maternal mortality rates, low child immunisation levels, mental health issues, substance misuse issues and diabetes.'

The ITMB website