Haverthwaite Surgery is committed to continually providing high quality healthcare for all patients and supporting the staff who provide this care. The Practice strives to promote a culture of equality and diversity.

All patients regardless of age, gender, ethnic background, culture, cognitive function, sexual orientation, or marital status have the right to have their privacy and dignity respected.

Equality means that everyone is treated fairly, receives the same treatment, and has the same opportunities.
Diversity is a word that describes the mixture of races, religions, and other characteristics that makes up society.
Human rights are the range of fair entitlements and moral treatments that should be available to all, such as justice, free speech, and equal opportunities.

For further detail please refer to Haverthwaite Surgery's Equality and Diversity Policy

Haverthwaite Surgery supports the Care Quality Commission's guidance for Primary Care staff to communicate openly and sensitively about sexual orientation and gender identity as a routine part of delivering good quality healthcare.  

Our Doctors may need to ask you about your sexual orientation, gender identity or trans status so that we can offer you treatment and care specific to your needs.  We will always communicate with you in a non-judgmental way and your gender status or history of trans or non-binary status will always be treated with the same level of confidentiality as any other sensitive personal information.

In April 2022 we updated our Gender Identity Policy to include the newly published Gender Identity Toolkit for General Practice.

The Toolkit provides further guidance for our staff on the procedures which should be undertaken within Primary Care to ensure that the care of transgender and non-binary patients is managed in the appropriate manner and in accordance with national guidance.  Our staff are aware of the need to ensure that patients are fully involved about decisions relating to their health and wellbeing and that they are offered the necessary support at all times.  In addition the Toolkit trains our staff on how best to administer changes to patient Medical Records and the patients' legal rights to ensure these changes are made in accordance with their wishes. 

Further reading from the GMC on patient rights as lesbian, gay, bi and trans patients.