Newham health bosses say: no more discrimination against gays

Kay Atwal, Chief Reporter Thursday, June 21, 2012
7:00 AM

Newham’s health bosses have joined a programme committed to doing away with discrimination against people on the basis of their sexual preferences.

Newham University Hospital, which is now part of Barts Health NHS Trust, has joined Stonewall’s Health Champions programme – an achievement which reflects its commitment to eliminating sexual orientation discrimination for staff and patients.

Barts Health will work with Stonewall to tackle this in London having made significant breakthroughs to get to this point in its individual hospital sites:

Having conducted an Equality Audit of staff in 2010 Newham University Hospital has a relatively high rate of ‘disclosure’ of sexual orientation at 54 per cent and features in the current Stonewall Careers Guide as an LGB-friendly employer

Sanchia Alasia, Equality and Diversity Lead at Barts Health’s Newham University Hospital, said: “By being a Health Champion we’re sending out a powerful message to our local community. We’re proud to be part of the programme and look forward to developing our work around sexual orientation with Stonewall. We now embark on a new Trust wide audit and begin the work to develop a Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Staff Network that serves our new Trust as a whole.”

Shona Brown, Director of Organisational Development, Barts Health, said: “We aim for LGB patients to become more positive about using our services and feel that we are meeting their health requirements. This approach has the full commitment and support of the Trust Board. We have made a lot of progress but we recognise that we still have much to do.”

James Taylor, Stonewall Senior Health Officer said: “By being part of the Health Champions programme Barts Health will receive free support from Stonewall to achieve real improvements in the care provided to lesbian, gay and bisexual people and their families.”