Sharon Cuzen

Haven Pharmacy, Miles Platting

It is important to understand the needs of our patients who identify as LGBT to make them feel safe, secure, and able to speak openly with the confidence that we are here to help and to be unbiased.

We have noticed that by wearing our lanyards with the LGBT colours we have started many conversations with LGBT customers that we might not have had before. In addition, we display our non-discrimination policies, confidentiality statement, equality and diversity statement and zero tolerance statement.

Working with Pride in Practice, we have been able to identify the needs of our LGBT customers so their visit to our pharmacy is a positive experience.

By striking up a conversation we have been surprised by how many of our LGBT customers have experienced discrimination due to their sexual orientation, gender identity or trans status.

After the Pride in Practice training one staff member shared they had received ‘very good information’ that was ‘very helpful’ and that they ‘learned a lot of things they were previously unaware of’.

We think that knowledge is power, and most people are unsure how to communicate in a non‑discriminatory fashion with LGBT people. If everyone were to have a better understanding of experiences LGBT people face then it would make everybody’s experience a better one.

By having an award for excellence in LGBT healthcare we can ensure our LGBT customers feel confident that they will receive a high level of service and we display our certificate with Pride.

We do mandatory campaigns for NHS England where we are sent a tool kit with information on how to present the campaign. We would really like to highlight LGBT issues in this way and any new information that would be of interest to ourselves and our customers.