ALL WALES ETHNIC MINORITY ASSOCIATION

The health care needs of ethnic minorities in Wales

The All Wales Ethnic Minority Association wished to improve secondary health care provisions for minority ethnic people in Wales. ETHNOS was commissioned to assess health care needs of the different communities in Wales.

Through individual interviews and focus groups (conducted in people’s preferred languages) with members of the Chinese, Somali, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black-Caribbean communities, we established:

• minority ethnic people’s health-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviours
• minority ethnic people’s experiences of, and satisfaction with, secondary health care in Wales
• barriers to use of health services

The report led to practical recommendations on ways of improving secondary health services to meet the needs of people from various minority ethnic backgrounds.