Just More Number Crunching

We’ve had the Equality Act since 2010 (1) and for many LGBT people it has been a game changer. It requires that anyone providing a service for the general public, including healthcare providers, does not discriminate who they provide that service to, no more “We don’t serve your sort in here, this is a family establishment.” In October 2017, NHS England has only just waken up to the fact the Equality Act also applies to the NHS, and in response they have released their latest initiative.

They announced that they want all patients’ sexuality recorded, with their other demographic details (2). So at every face to face encounter with a patient with doctors and nurses and all healthcare professionals have to ask patients what their sexuality is, if it does not already state so on their demographies. Patients do have the opinion to decline to answer.

But this is NHS England’s only response to the Equality Act, to gather data on patients’ sexuality, nothing more. We’ve had several studies, in recent years, about the poor treatment LGBT patients have received from the NHS, there have also been studies into what an unfriendly working environment for LGBT staff the NHS is.

Back in 2007, Stonewall published their study Being the Gay One (3), on the homophobia faced by staff working in health and social care, it was more than an uncomfortable read. Since then they have published four different studies on the experience of LGBT patients in the NHS (4, 5, 6, 7) and all of them have highlighted the negative and homophobic experiences they have received, with many LGBT patients unwilling to be open about their sexuality for fear of homophobic treatment from healthcare professionals.

In 2015 Stonewall published Unhealthy Attitudes (8), their report into a survey of LGBT healthcare staff. The findings of this report showed so little had changed since 2007, and Stonewall’s first report (3). Unhealthy Attitudes found that 25% people surveyed had been the victims of homophobic abuse at work. Last year a BMA study found that 70% of LGBT doctors had experienced homophobia at work, and three quarters of them had never reported it out of fear of reprisals (9). Last year we had the unpleasant sight of NHS England itself going to the High Court to win the right not to fund the HIV preventative drug PrEP (10).

Yet we also have areas of good practice and there are resources out there for NHS Trusts that want to turn around this situation. In 2012 Stonewall published Sexual Orientation, A guide for the NHS (11), which is full of practical advice for combatting homophobia in healthcare. Back in 2009, the Department of Health produced Sexual Orientation: A practical guide for the NHS (12), which was designed to help reduce the healthcare inequalities faced by LGBT people.

We already have a lot of evidence about the homophobic treatment many LBGT people have received at the hands of the NHS, NHS Choices acknowledged the problem back in 2012 (13), there is also guidance on how to reverse this, and yet all NHS England can think to do to combat healthcare homophobia is to ask patients what their sexuality is. A third of gay and bisexual men are not open about their sexuality to their GPs (7) and half of Lesbians and bisexual women (5). Why isn’t NHS England launching a high profile initiative to tackle homophobia in the NHS and to make it a welcoming place to LGBT people? Why isn’t NHS England ensuring that the NHS complies with the Equality Act? Instead all they can do is collect data on LGBT people. So typical of NHS England, too little and much so late.

But why should nurses, be concerned about this? How can we say we are providing open and non-judgemental nursing care when so many LGBT people are afraid of being open about themselves in front of us?

(This was originally written for the Nursing Standard)

Drew Payne

Silent Too Long

I’ve been silent on this blog for too long now. My excuse isn’t original but I’ve been so busy and distracted. Back in April I was made redundant. The company I worked for went into financial crisis. They did a lot of work for the NHS and weren’t being paid, because of all the NHS cutbacks. All this lead to me taking redundancy. Since then I’ve been looking for a permanent job, and that hasn’t been easy but has taken up so much of my time. Must employers only seem to be taking casual staff. At the moment I’m working as a Bank Community Nurse, in Central London, but fortunately there’s plenty of this work to go around. I’m still looking for a more permanent/long-term job though.

Enough of my woes. I have still been writing and fortunately have been having quite a bit of success with it.

I’ve had several articles and reviews published in Nursing Standard magazine, I’m so fortunate to have such a good relationship with them. The most recent article of mine they published was a nurse’s guide to the Equality Act. To me, this is such an important piece of legalisation, not the “political correctness gone mad” as our media likes to call it. For nurses, too, it’s very important because nurses are called to respect equality, it’s in our code of practice. Equality is far more than just “treating everyone the same”, it’s about creating a level playing field for everyone, and unfortunately we need laws to ensure this.

I had a short story included in Gazebo (No 11 Summer 2011) magazine, it was called Appetite. It was about a gay man who’s suffer from anorexia, though he just feels he needs to lose weight to do attractive. It’s another of those subjects that I feel important about, mental health, and how it affects people’s lives. It was certainly one of my tragic themed stories.

My biggest writing success has been The Treason Show, a monthly Brighten satirical review. So far I’ve had sketches in the two most recent shows. I started writing, back as a teenager, writing sketches and now I’m back to it again. It has also re-fired my desire to write plays, so watch this space, as they say.

My short story, Love & Need, can be read here. It’s about a man whose boyfriend is needy and demanding, but this makes their relationship instead of breaking it. My twisted take on everything.

Also, watch this space because I’m going to be trying to post a short story on this blog each Friday. This is so I can enter the Mad Utopia’s Flash Friday writing. It all sounds complicated but it’s another showcase for my writing and I can’t turn my nose at that. You can read more about it here.

Drew.

And Now for Something Very Horrible

This is almost too shocking to believe, yet it is very real.

The Government is thinking about scraping the Equality Act.

They have launched a website called “Red Tape Challenge”, were members of the public can leave suggestions on how to cut bureaucracy. One of the first things under consideration, on that website, is the Equality Act.

I applauded when the Equality Act came into law because, put briefly, it says that anyone providing a public service (Public or Private Sector) cannot refuse someone that service because of that person’s sexuality or perceived sexuality. It’s no longer lawful to say, “We don’t serve queers in here!”

It took away that shadow of prejudice that has hung over my shoulder all my adult life, being turned away because I’m gay. Turned from a hotel, a taxi, medical treatment, the list is almost endless.

Now, the Government wants to take that protection away, because they consider it’s “too much red tape”. My blood boils with anger.

This is a quote from GMFA about how serious this is:

“Last week the LGF in Manchester had the Speaker from the House visit. His speech touched upon how organised the religious right is in this country, when it comes to letter writing and letting MPs, Ministers and Civil Servants know about their concerns about equality legislation in favour of LGB&T people. He said that any time positive legislation was put before the House, politicians’ mailbags were full to bursting with constituents encouraged to speak against the gains by some religious organisations and, although politicians generally know that there is a lot of favorable support out there for our inclusion in equality advancement, we as LGB&T communities are often silent.”

The irony is that the Equality Act extended to sexual orientation the protections already enjoyed, in law, by those with religious beliefs.

This Link is where you can leave a message of support for the act and call on the government not to scrap it: http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/equalities

This link will give you more details on the act.

Please help keep Britain a fair country.

Drew.