Research question: This project aims to explore how ten English children’s hospitals view their responsibility to reduce health inequalities.
Methods: the work is in three strands. The first strand involved contacting key stakeholders in the ten partner hospitals and requesting policy documents related to inequalities, which were them thematically analysed. The second strand is a scoping review of “grey” literature (i.e. that published outside of journals) relating to the role of hospitals in addressing health inequalities experienced by children and young people (CYP). The last strand will focus on collecting qualitative data from nine of the hospitals, via interviews and focus groups with staff members.
Findings: eight out of ten hospitals responded to our request for policy documents and several themes were identified across these documents. The scoping review protocol is currently under peer review and the review itself is ongoing. Data collection for the third strand will commence in February 2023.
Significance of research: This project intends to have a positive impact on the health of CYP, by sharing best practices and providing information on how trusts may improve access to quality healthcare and reduce health inequalities.