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Healthwatch Darlington created this report which focuses on how accessible GPs are to Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Darlington and patients with sight and/or hearing impairment. A member of the BME community is defined as someone who is not White British. The review focusses on the difficulties BME community members have in registering with a GP in Darlington, the support and standard of care they are given when using their GP surgery, and the provisions in place to address language barriers for BME patients. Healthwatch Darlington took the opportunity to explore this area after it was brought to their attention by Darlington Assistance for Refugees (DAR). DAR related the experience of an Arabic family of five children who tried to register at a GP surgery in Darlington, they were given a registration form in English to fill out and sent away. Despite speaking limited English, they were not given any translated documents or support in filling out the forms. The Borough of Darlington has a resident population of around 106,000 people made up of approximately 51% female and 49% male. The ethnic population according to a 2011 census from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) states that only 3.8% of Darlington’s population is made up of BME communities. There has been no recent update on figures but Healthwatch Darlington state that it is expected that this population figure will have increased due to immigration and refugees.

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