House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, October 2019
This report finds that too often LGBT people are expected to fit into systems that assume they are straight and cisgender. But the Committee has found that deep inequalities exist in health outcomes for these communities and that treating them “the same” as non-LGBT people will not address these poor outcomes. The report finds that too few health and social care providers are actively thinking about LGBT people when they plan their services and that senior leaders are not doing enough to ensure that LGBT-inclusion is hardwired into commissioning strategies. This problem filters all the way down to training, where medics of the future are not taught how to provide LGBT-inclusive treatment. While few people set out to discriminate, training currently sends the message that sexual orientation and gender identity are not relevant to providing “person-centred care”. This is, in fact, essential. At the moment, there seems to be neither the leadership necessary to ensure services are designed to be LGBT-inclusive nor swift enough improvements among staff on the ground.
Click here to view the full report.