Improving working lives: Dignity at work for lesbian and gay doctors and dentists in the NHS

Welcome to the Antidiscrimination at Work web page of the Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists (GLADD).

Discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation is now illegal in the UK.

GLADD first produced guidance on how to avoid discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual doctors, dentists and students in 2002, in advance of the recent legislation. This was well received and adopted by the British Medical Association and General Medical Council as a useful policy development.

We are continuing to work with the BMA and BDA on these important issues as well as working as unpaid volunteers with the GMC, National Patient Safety Agency and National Clinical Assessement Authority on equality and diversity issues.

Since November 2002, GLADD has been working with colleagues at the Department of Health (DH) in an attempt to ensure that policies and practices to prevent discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation are introduced widely and swiftly throughout the NHS and other health care providers. As the UK's largest employer it is essential that the NHS takes on board the implications of these legal changes as soon as possible.

To date (August 2004) the DH has issued no guidance to NHS Trusts and other health care employers. GLADD deeply regrets this and will continue and widen its campaign to ensure that lgb medical and dental staff and students are treated fairly and with dignity. If the NHS fails its lgb staff, it cannot provide properly for its lgb patients. The DH has recently undertaken a major consultation on equality and diversity in the medical workforce and GLADD is disappointed that this omits sexual orientation as a key theme from this potentially important piece of work.

Our guidance for NHS Trusts, General Medical and Dental Practices, Medical and Dental Schools as well as to help the individual deal with homophobia is available for download in Portable Document Format click on the link below:

Dignity at work for lesbian and gay doctors and dentists

Any comments on the Guidelines will be very welcome. Please do not hesitate to contact us with your comments or if you would like further information about this work. We can also forward your comments about the DH's role to relevant officials.

Comments we have received so far:

Excellent guidelines. I am attending tonight a meeting of RCN OUT group( Yes in
the London Region there is a Lesbian,Gay and Transgender group for nurses set
up within the RCN). This would have been unthinkable several years ago. I will
taking copies of the guidelines with me,as issues raised have common ground for
nurses.

I wanted to say how good I thought your guidelines re: IWL Dignity at work for lesbians and gay men in the NHS are. I am not a Doctor or Dentist but am a lesbian NHS employee and therefore feel that I too will benefit from your guidelines. I was particularly glad to see on p12 your comment about pension rights as this is clearly an area that needs to be revisited by the NHS in terms of equality.

Background work

We held a preliminary workshop in Leicester in September 2000 to start the groundwork for this important project. The workshop was well-attended by GLADD members as well as representatives from NHS Executive and some of the Royal Colleges. The transcript of proceedings of this workshop is available for download:

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