Healthcare providers across the UK have been accused of not addressing the concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients, and surveys have highlighted that more needs to be done to advance equality for LGBT medical professionals. In Scotland, the NHS is on a mission to improve the healthcare environment for members of the LGBT community through a number of policies and initiatives.
Dr Thom O’Neill is working with NHS Scotland to help healthcare providers better understand and meet the needs of LGBT teenagers and young adults.
Alongside his work as a paediatric clinical research fellow at Edinburgh’s royal hospital for sick children, O’Neill teaches healthcare professionals how to improve the healthcare environment for members of the LGBT community.
O’Neill says he encourages staff to be considerate with their language and ask patients whether they have a partner as opposed to a boyfriend or girlfriend.
He also recommends using “rainbow flags, posters and other visible policy markers to make surroundings more visually inclusive”.
He says the project has received good feedback, and he is appreciative of the role that NHS Scotland has played in its success. “They are a very proactive organisation – receptive to new ideas and suggestions and great at linking people together.” Their support has been very valuable to me, he says.
He also thinks the joined-up nature of health services in Scotland mean it is easier than in England to disseminate best practice learnings. “It is easier to reach different staff groups in Scotland. When I gave a talk at the rural GP conference in Inverness, my presentation reached all GPs across the Highlands and Islands – which subsequently led me to work with them to improve local resources and knowledge.”
O’Neill’s project isn’t the only example of NHS Scotland’s efforts to address issues faced by LGBT patients, and improve the working environment for LGBT healthcare workers.
Dorothy Wright, director of workforce at NHS Education for Scotland (NES), says the organisation recognises the importance of thinking specifically about inclusion and equality for LGBT staff.
“In Scotland, NHS boards are subject to a number of specific equality duties, as well as the staff governance standard, which all hold us to very high standards when it comes to ensuring fair and equitable treatment of all our staff and in the services we deliver.”
Wright gives an example of NHS Scotland’s employment policies to highlight her point. “Our suite of family friendly policies, including parental leave, special leave and carer’s leave, explicitly references different family models and same-sex parents. The policies are actively used and welcomed by staff – and the shared parental leave arrangements are promoting equality for parents in same-sex families.”
According to a report by Stonewall released in 2015, 24% of patient-facing staff in the UK have heard their colleagues make negative remarks about lesbian, gay or bisexual people. And 26% of lesbian, gay and bisexual staff say they have personally experienced bullying or poor treatment from colleagues in the last five years as a result of their sexual orientation.
NHS Scotland is aware of these statistics and are working to ensure that LGBT employees feel welcomed and sufficiently supported within their workplace.
At a local level, health boards are pushing the agenda forward through employee-led staff LGBT networks and participation in local Pride and LGBT community activities. They are also raising awareness around issues of bullying, harassment or hate crime and empowering employees to challenge such behaviour.
An outstanding example of this approach is the Golden Jubilee national hospital near Glasgow. It was named the top health and social care provider in the UK in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (WEI) 2016 (pdf), and in this year’s Stonewall WEI it was among the top five (pdf) in the UK.
To collaborate on policy development, campaigns and other local activities, NHS Scotland has entered into a national partnership with Stonewall Scotland. The partnership means that it works with a dedicated Stonewall officer to collaborate on policy development, campaigns and other local activities.
While the Golden Jubilee national hospital was the most recent board in Scotland to submit itself to the Stonewall WEI, Wright is hopeful that this alliance will provide an opportunity for other boards to get more involved and learn from the good practice they developed. “Everyone should have the opportunity to be themselves at work,” she says.
O’Neill is optimistic about the future as well. “I wish this kind of awareness and education existed when I was studying. Now my aim is to ensure our health services provide one of the most progressive and inclusive environments for LGBT people.”
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