Select committee calls for submissions on LGBT healthcare

The Women and Equalities Committee has launched an inquiry to consider whether provision is adequate, whether discrimination is still occurring, and what more needs to be done to improve access to health and social care.

The Committee will look at the following issues:

• Understanding and addressing LGBT health inequalities:
  In what areas of health do LGBT people experience worse outcomes than the general population?
  What is known about why this is, and what interventions are effective in improving outcomes? What are the gaps in evidence?
• Meeting the needs of LGBT people in health and social care:
  What evidence shows that LGBT people have particular needs as health and social care users? What are these needs?
  How effectively do health and social care providers take into account the needs of LGBT people? How should provision of specialist services be balanced with a mainstreaming approach?
  What should be done to improve, what examples of best practice are there, and what is the evidence about what works?
  What particular challenges do older LGBT people face in accessing social care, housing and end-of-life care?
  What evidence is there that LGBT people with other protected characteristics (older people, people from BAME communities, disabled people) face particular problems with discrimination in or access to health services, and what actions could be taken to improve health and social care experiences and outcomes for these different groups?
• Discrimination in health and social care:
  What does the evidence show about levels of discrimination against LGBT people when they access health and social care? What types of discrimination are faced and in what areas of health or social care?
  What are the causes of that discrimination?
  What actions have been taken by health and social care providers to reduce levels of discrimination? How effective have these actions been?
• The National Adviser for LGBT healthcare:
  How should the new National Adviser for improving LGBT healthcare go about their work? What needs to happen for this role to be effective?
  What should the National Adviser’s priorities be, and what would you like them to achieve?