McCallum et al’s article is an incredibly thought-provoking read, and I commend the authors for such a novel approach to the identification of barriers to health care faced by some socioeconomically deprived communities.1 However, it has to be noted that, by only interviewing those who can speak English, a whole realm of other views may be being missed and potentially increasing the divide in ethnic inequalities in health care that we are already facing in the UK.
The article clearly highlights how community factors impact self-management of conditions and how person-centred care is viewed by predominately white, English-speaking Glaswegians. However, it is widely known that the views of non-white and non-English-speaking communities have the potential to differ greatly from these. Previous research on this topic has suggested that black and Asian communities have suboptimal disease management for MLTCs in comparison with white communities. It would have been interesting to identify if there are different factors for these communities and strive to ensure we do not widen the ethnic inequalities in health care when there are already inadequate initiatives for reducing them.2
- © British Journal of General Practice 2024
