A critical evaluation of cultural competence in medical sector: Perspectives of ethnic minority cancer patients and local healthcare professionals in Hong Kong

Abstract

Cultural competence in the context of healthcare is a well-recognized concept worldwide. In Hong Kong, relevant healthcare recommendations such as the promotion of infusion model of teaching cultural competence in tertiary education, enhancement of on-the-job training, institutional changes, establishment of culturally competent lens for program delivery and policy making, are actively proposed in recent years (EOC, 2019). Cultural competence should be particularly important to patients with critical illness such as cancer because communication among different stakeholders, healthcare literacy and emotional support are all vital in the process of healing and recovery. However, the existing recommendations have the following insufficiencies. First, they are all based on a top-down approach which lacks an emergence of any voices and suggestions of service users. Second, cultural competence admittedly improves the cultural sensitivity of healthcare professionals but there is no evidence to show that cultural competence training of healthcare staff improves patient adherence to therapy, health outcomes, and quality of services across ethnic groups. 11 Drawing on qualitative interviews with thirty cancer patients and eight healthcare professionals in 2022- 23, this presentation aims to articulate the perspective of service users and evaluate the existing capacity of culturally competent healthcare delivery in Hong Kong with reference to the capacity assessment model (United Nations Development Programme, 1998). Among all essential findings, cultural competence holds a different meaning for different people and it may be that cancer patients have taken a different approach as to what cultural competence means to them, which varies from a top-down education or policy approach.