What referral pathways exist for patients experiencing health inequalities related to specific demographic factors?

Patients experiencing health inequalities related to specific demographic factors can be referred through multiple pathways tailored to their needs and circumstances. Primary healthcare providers such as GPs can be the first point of referral for ongoing contraception, assessment for sleep apnoea, support for high-risk alcohol consumption, drug misuse recovery, and weight reduction services. Local authority, NHS, community, and voluntary sector organisations provide referral options for weight loss programmes, mental health and wellbeing support, specialist drug misuse treatment, and social care for adults and children. Community pharmacies play a key role in signposting and formal referrals, ensuring patients understand the referral reason, destination, and expected services, and providing written information when available ¹.

For underserved groups, including those facing barriers due to social circumstances, language, culture, or lifestyle, referral pathways include outreach services, low-threshold services, and care navigation support to help overcome access barriers. Designated care navigators, case workers, or peers with lived experience assist patients in navigating complex health and social care systems ².

Specific multidisciplinary teams, such as tuberculosis (TB) teams, establish referral pathways with statutory, community, and voluntary organisations working with at-risk groups, accepting referrals from healthcare providers, allied community organisations, and self-referrals. These teams ensure culturally and linguistically appropriate engagement and have governance and data-sharing agreements to support cross-boundary working ³.

Additional support includes practical measures to help disadvantaged patients attend appointments, such as transport assistance, postal reminders, home visits, and provision of treatment vouchers. Routinely searching electronic records to identify patients who have missed appointments or prescriptions and contacting them is recommended. Health equity audits help assess whether services effectively reach disadvantaged groups and guide local actions to reduce inequities ⁴.