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‘Nothing to stop’ CQC collecting GP ethnicity data, says BAPIO

‘Nothing to stop’ CQC collecting GP ethnicity data, says BAPIO

There is ‘nothing to stop’ the CQC collecting the ethnicity data of GP providers, the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) has said.

The CQC admitted this year that its inspection and monitoring methodology ‘may inadvertently disadvantage’ ethnic minority-run GP practices and lead to ‘inequities’.

But Pulse has learned that the CQC is still not collecting ethnicity data of GP providers, despite the regulator saying this time last year it was planning to collect and monitor the data.

The regulator said it is developing the capacity to monitor ethnicity data as part of a wider strategy and it is exploring how it can best use that data to give meaningful insights.

But BAPIO president Dr Ramesh Mehta told Pulse: ‘If they want to do it, there is nothing to stop them.’

He said: ‘They’re such an important regulatory body and it is their job to provide transparent, sensible information and work to the benefit of patients. What they’re doing is just the opposite.’ 

Dr Mehta said it is ‘common sense’ for the CQC to collect the ethnicity data of GP providers. 

He said: ‘Unless the CQC as the regulatory body has information as to what sort of ethnicity these doctors belong to, what are they serving, what type of population they are serving. How can they do justice in regulating these doctors?’

He added: ‘We’ve been talking to them for [about] 10 years now. Every time we [do], they say, “Oh, we’re sorry. We’ll do this. We will do that.” Lots of promises, but what are the outcomes? Nothing. And how come things have not only not improved, but have gone worse.’

The CQC’s recent report noted that ‘full ethnicity data was not available for most practices’ and said the main reason for this was that ‘not all GPs working at a practice had reported their ethnicity to the GMC’.

It added: ‘Due to limitations in the data available to us from all partners in the system, we were unable to fully explore the nature of the relationship, or existence of any causal link, between ethnic minority-led GP practices and regulatory outcomes such as ratings and frequency of inspection.’

CQC chief inspector of primary medical services Rosie Benneyworth said at the latest CQC board meeting that the regulator ‘need[s] to get our data collection better’.

A survey by BAPIO last Autumn found that more than 70% of GPs from minority ethnic backgrounds would describe CQC inspections as ‘traumatic’.


          

READERS' COMMENTS [2]

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Patrufini Duffy 15 March, 2022 8:25 pm

Basically, under Professor Field, Madan, Hunt and Stokes-Lampard you permitted and initiated a systematic and cunning persecution of underfunded, overscrutinised single-handed and small GP surgeries. You didn’t support them, you didn’t listen to them, you just came in and intimidated the nations carers – who weren’t some Harold Shipman, but someone that didn’t follow your hypothetical spreadsheets and “key indicator” tick boxes. You all tried to dust of your dirty hands and try run away, but the marks are still on you. Merely, to push your plan of “Primary Care at Scale”. Well done on that. The backbone of the NHS, culled. And disregarded to this day. They’ve gone now, and best health to them. Now you’re (what we say coloquially as) shafted. You can keep importing foreign doctors, and try to golden handshake, intimidate and shaft them, but that won’t last you very long. Because, you’ll get called out now. The word corruption and racism across the UK institutions, is the biggest disease of the state, that buddies deeply with the GMC and even RCGP. How shallow and deplorable. Whistleblowing, duty of candour, openness and honesty, such hipocrasy. An embarrassment, which is now coming to bite. Continually. And this doesn’t just apply to General Practice, to the care and nursing sector also. Keep the reports rolling and the soft talk of change, and “feedback”. It accounts for nothing, as the hierarchy itself is diseased.

MULAYIL KRISHNAN Gopinath 29 July, 2022 11:06 am

Well said.