BIMA President, Dr Sahira Dar, spoke at the launch of EQUI’s new report, Faith in the NHS, which makes the case for embedding faith literacy into healthcare to improve patient outcomes, staff wellbeing and health equity.
BIMA was pleased to collaborate with EQUI on the healthcare professionals’ survey included within the report, as well as several contributions to the research through expert interviews.
The findings reinforce what we hear consistently from our members. While 100% of Muslim healthcare professionals surveyed agreed that understanding a patient’s faith can improve health outcomes, only 7% believed the NHS consistently meets those needs.
The report also highlights the impact of faith-informed care, from improved access to services and stronger patient trust to better staff experiences and retention. It sets out five practical recommendations, including:
- Embedding faith into patient assessments
- Collecting faith data to address health inequalities
- Standardising faith-literate support for staff
- Sharing examples of good practice across the NHS
- Recognising faith as a key partner in community health
At BIMA, we have long advocated that faith literacy is not an optional extra, it is fundamental to delivering equitable, person-centred care. Thank EQUI for helping bring this important issue to the forefront and look forward to further collaborations in the future.