Sarah Norcross, PET director attended a policy breakfast meeting at Allianz House organised by DIVA and LGBT Labour as part of Lesbian Visibility Week
Chaired by Nancy Kelley and attended by Dame Nia Griffith who is the Labour MP for Llanelli, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Equalities and for Wales. Kirsty Blackman the SNP MP for Aberdeen North also attended.
Joining the politicians were patient advocacy groups and campaigners from the LGBTQ+ community such as Laura-Rose Thorogood, Jake and Hannah Graf, Joanne English Co-Founder and CEO of Queertopia Alex Matheson of the LGBT Foundation.
Given the recent event PET on LGBTQ+ communities and the barriers many people in those communities face in forming a family the discussion points were not surprising. If you missed the event you can watch the video or read the event summary in BioNews. However, it is shocking that some of the problems which are simple and inexpensive to fix have not been resolved.
Take language – using language that is appropriate to the patient in front of you should not be difficult. As Freddy McConnell said ‘it’s basic but makes a massive difference’.
Education about the existence of and the specific needs of the LGBTQ+ community when it comes to family formation needs to be delivered to GPs, fertility clinic staff and just as importantly to policymakers in NHS Integrated Care Boards.
As you would expect access to fertility treatment – was a hot topic with everyone calling for better access to NHS-funded treatment.
The discussion could have lasted all day but by 10am everyone had eaten their breakfast and was on their way to work buzzing with ideas of how to move things forward.