Overwork as a concept to understand health inequities for ethnicised patients in health care.

Abstract

Health inequities for ethnically minoritised patients are well-documented. In this ethnographic study, we follow thirteen patients categorised as 'ethnic minorities' in Danish health care during hospitalisation in three orthopaedic wards across two hospitals. The categorisation of 'ethnic minority patient' has been problematised for its Eurocentric origin and practices within Westernised health care. We use ethnicised to emphasise the process of becoming minoritised based on markers of physical appearance, religious symbols, language or names. Access to health care also rely on perceived legitimacy as health-care recipients which requires work by patients. We demonstrate the workings patients categorised as 'ethnic minorities' engage in by (re)producing othering ideas about non-Danishness, including distancing from other patients perceived as problematic. These were then (counter)produced by positioning oneself as the opposite, as deserving health-care receivers by displaying welfare reciprocity, supporting egalitarian ideas by discounting discriminatory experiences, showing gratitude and identifying staff with good vibes. We propose these doings as creating overwork. This theoretical approach enables a sensitivity towards subtle and covert workings for patients placed in the margins of health care. In this study, overwork is closely related to notions of Danishness and takes on specific forms within a modernised and universalised Danish health-care system.