Lincolnshire NHS Trust Celebrates Healthcare Equality Index Ranking

Community NHS services in Lincolnshire have been ranked for the first time in the Stonewall Healthcare Equality Index.

Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) has been placed 16th out of more than 40 different healthcare organisations in England.

The index, set up by the charity Stonewall, helps organisations to benchmark and track their progress on equality for their gay, lesbian and bisexual patients and service users.

Stonewall's research has found there are many people within the LGB community across England who continue to face poor health outcomes, as well as poorer treatment.

For the past year, LCHS has been part of Stonewall's Health Champions programme, funded by the Department of Health, to improve services for the LGB community.

Rachel Higgins, Equality and Human Rights Project Manager at LCHS, said: "I am very proud LCHS has scored so high in our first year of the Health Champions programme. Our score reflects some of the great work we've carried out over the last year which has included setting up a LGB&T patient group, providing targeted training for our staff and developing an accompanying resource for all staff.

"I would like to thank both the staff and patients who have been involved in helping shape our work so far. We hope we can continue to improve the health of LGB&T people in Lincolnshire."

Leila Woodhouse, Health Officer at Stonewall, said “LCHS has done some great work over the past year to listen to the voices of local lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in Lincolnshire and are working hard to ensure changes are made to local health services to meet their needs. I’m sure they will build on this good work in the years to come.”