Meeting the needs of minority ethnic communities

Concentrating on exotica and cultural differences merely allows commissioners and providers to ignore general health needs and blame the communities themselves when they receive poor quality services. We now have to move forward if we are to achieve an improvement in their health care. We are not talking of an insignificant minority, but nearly one in 10 of all children. Clearly real differences in health needs do exist, for example haemoglobinopathy associated illness; these need to be addressed and adequate provision made. It is in meeting the general needs of minority ethnic children that we face the greatest challenge. These are no different to those of the white ethnic majority. However, meeting them may require different--sometimes radically different--response strategies on behalf of both purchasers and providers of health care to children, supported by appropriate training, audit, and research.