Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Overwhelmingly healthcare professionals are delivering outstanding patient care in the almost impossible circumstances of a Tory Government that is starving the NHS of resources. We know that health workers aim to actively support LGBT+ people to overcome the discrimination, hostility and unequal treatment they still face when accessing healthcare services.
 
“LGBT+ people experience significant health inequalities in terms of health outcomes, health care service provision and health risk factors and we know that discrimination can lead to misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, inappropriate treatments and can prevent LGBT+ people from seeking help.
 
“Usdaw is seeking to raise the profile of this issue, along with the connection to unequal treatment in the workplace. We also want to see more promotion of the specialist services available to LGBT+ people. The Government must be held to account for their failure to progress the recommendations of the 2018 national LGBT+ action plan, not properly resource the NHS or agree a decent pay rise for NHS staff.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 350,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion