Department of Health's requirement for mandatory collection of data on ethnic group of inpatients.

On 1 April the Department of Health introduced the mandatory collection of data on the ethnic group of patients admitted to hospital. Its coding was based on a national minimum standard for classifying ethnic groups, ostensibly using the categories in the 1991 census. In the census, however, one in four people from ethnic groups other than white, including many of mixed parentage, provided non-standard responses to the question on ethnic group. The Department of Health's standard does not include provision for respondents to write in a description of their ethnic group, and this has produced a flawed system out of step with current practice on collection of data on ethnic group. Different methods of analysis preclude comparison with census statistics, and the difficulties in aggregating more detailed local categories to the standard raise concerns about consistency of reporting and quality of the data.