Access to specialist Epilepsy care by ethnicity and deprivation: analysis of a UK regional service

<h3></h3> Access to epilepsy care is essential to alleviate the financial and personal burdens epilepsy poses. To uncover disparities in accessing epilepsy care, the ethnic and socioeconomic distribution across three populations (Greater Manchester [GM], Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences [MCCN], and the Manchester Epilepsy Clinic [MEC]) from 2021 to 2022 were investigated. The findings revealed statistically significant disparities in ethnicity (p=0.0002) and deprivation (p&lt;0.0001) distribution. In GM, the Asian and Black populations constitute 13.6% and 4.7%, however, only 5.8% and 1.8% of these groups accessed the MCCN; those accessing the MEC were even lower at 3.8% and 0.9% respectively. Regarding deprivation, the most deprived decile represents approximately 24% of GM and MCCN, yet only 8% in the MEC. These findings illustrate that ethnic minorities and the most deprived are underrepresented when accessing secondary/tertiary care. This is especially meaningful given the higher prevalence of epilepsy in the Black community and the socially deprived. This underrepresentation could be due to barriers such as cultural understanding, language, employment and transport difficulties or even implicit bias. Targeted outreach programs and interventions should be introduced to optimise equitable epilepsy care for all.