NHS to review how it communicates with Jewish communities

A review into how the NHS communicates with Jewish communities in England will seek to improve patient care and prevent disengagement from healthcare services by producing new guidelines for clinicians working with these groups. 

Research will examine how key public health messages are delivered to the community and will focus on potential barriers around communications about vaccinations, preventive health care examination, healthy dietary practices and mental health wellbeing.

Commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory – an independent expert body, established by the NHS – the research will explore known barriers to accessing healthcare, such as issues around booking and attending appointments during the Sabbath and religious festivals, as well as well as feelings of mistrust.

The review will also examine how to tackle low immunisation take-up in certain communities, high Covid-19 infection and mortality rates and the increased genetic risk of certain diseases, such as breast cancer for Ashkenazi Jews.