The paper examines the stereotypes of South Asian descent women held by midwives in a British hospital. The data are drawn from a small‐scale ethnographic study which investigated the women's maternity experiences. The midwives’ stereotype contained four main themes: the difficulty of communicating with the women; the women's lack of compliance with care and abuse of the service; their tendency to ‘make a fuss about nothing’; and their lack of ‘normal maternal instinct’. The creation, perpetuation and effects of this negative stereotyping are examined in the light of the wider sociological research on patient typification. Black and minority ethnic patients are particularly vulnerable to negative typification because of their visibility combined with the fact that crude racial stereotypes are common in wider society. Stereotyping reflected and reinforced the view that Asian women are ‘all the same’ but ‘not like us’. Midwives used stereotypes to help them to make judgements about the kind of care different women want, need and deserve. It is therefore argued that stereotyping is a factor in the creation of the inequality in health experiences of black and minority ethnic patients.

Potential policy interventions to attract GPs to under-served areas include increasing their level of remuneration, providing opportunities to develop outside interests and ensuring that practices have a primary health care team.

Objective: The authors sought to identify ways in which the use of general practice computer systems could be improved to enhance safety in primary care. Design: Qualitative study using semistructured interviews. Participants: Thirty one participants, representing a broad range of relevant disciplines and interest groups. Participants included clinicians, computer system and drug database suppliers, academics with interests in health informatics and members of governmental, professional and patient representative bodies. Setting: UK. Results: Participants identified deficiencies in current systems that pose serious threats to patient safety. To bring about improvements, providers need to supply clinicians with safe, accurate and accessible information for decision support; be aware of the importance of human ergonomics in the design of hazard alerts; consider the value of audit trails and develop mechanisms to allow for the accurate transfer of information between clinical computer systems. These improvements in computer systems will be most likely to occur if mandated through regulations. Individual practices are in need of improved education and training which focuses, in particular, on providing support with recording data accurately and using call, recall and reminders effectively. Conclusion: There are significant opportunities for improving the safety of general practice computer systems. Priorities include improving the knowledge base for clinical decision support, paying greater attention to human ergonomics in system design, improved staff training and the introduction of new regulations mandating system suppliers to satisfy essential safety requirements.

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