“It doesn’t make a difference” – a study about perceived discrimination in health care and reports to Diskrimineringsombudsmannen

According to Swedish law, all health care should be equal, and discrimination is illegal. If a patient is subjected to discrimination, they have the right to inform Diskrimineringsombudsmannen (Ombudsman against Ethnic Discrimination, DO). The purpose of this study is to investigate what types and form of discrimination patients has perceived with focus on what consequences the discrimination leads to, and if the patients have informed DO.Analytical framework: According to DO, discrimination is when people are treated differently and that a difference is made between people. DO has identified seven causes for discrimination, these are gender, transgender identity or expressions, ethnicity, religion or other beliefs, disability, age and sexual orientation. The six forms of discrimination are direct and indirect, lack of accessibility, harassment, sexual harassment and instructions to discriminate according to DO. This study will use the definition from DO. According to several studies, discrimination in health care occurs.Method and analysis: The sample used for this study is convenience sample. The method for data collection used is a survey constructed in Google forms. The survey was shared on social media. The method for analysis was quantitative content analysis.Results: The answers from the survey were analysed into three categories: “The most common grounds for perceived discrimination”, “The effects of discrimination” and “Inclination to leave complaints to DO.”Analysis and conclusion: The study found that respondents that have perceived discrimination in health care was less inclined to seek health care and that the trust in health care was affected negatively after experiences of discrimination. Respondents who have perceived themselves to be subjected to discrimination was more inclined to change care provider. The leading reasons for patients not to inform DO about discrimination were a) because they thought it would not make a difference and b) because they did not know that they could turn to DO. More research is needed in this subject