Agenda item

Ann Crowder from the Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Trust advised of her role in relation to equalities and diversity and explained some of the work that she was involved in.  She acknowledged that Health was some way behind Local Government in terms of equality and diversity and advised that she was the only officer in the County with this responsibility.  The Trust had previously been focussing on race equality issues but now good progress had been made in that area, they would be looking at other equality issues. She then asked for Forum for suggestions as to areas on which the Trust needed to focus. The Forum suggested :-

• Access to mental health services for all minority communities.
• Consideration of the Trusts HIV policies that related to employees.
• The need for GP practices to be more aware of discrimination issues.
• The support given to those visiting Northampton who are unexpectedly admitted to hospital and they have no one else locally to assist with their care.

Andrew suggested that A Crowder meet separately with the NLGBA to discuss their concerns, particularly in relation to access to health care services, and A Crowder welcomed this suggestion.

A Crowder referred to the to the recent changes in law in relation to Civil Partnerships and advised that the guidance was not explicit about next of kin rights. However the Trust, in the spirit of the law, allowed next of kin rights to civil partners. The Forum acknowledged that this issue needed to be investigated as soon as possible.

L Ambrose referred to previous discussions at the Forum concerning Medigold and the Borough Council policy on the disclosure of HIV information in relation to the recruitment process.  H Crabtree had advised at a previous meeting that he had been intending to work on the policy later in the year, hopefully by September 2006.  However due to the number of issues he was having to deal with it was now hoped that this could be done by the end of the year.  Andrew had been expressing his concerns in relation to the confidentiality of the process and Medigold’s policy on disclosure for some time now, and it appeared that little progress was being made.

Further to the Meeting – Howard Crabtree has confirmed he will attend the January 2007 Meeting of the Forum and he apologies for the delay.

Andrew referred to the discussion at the last meeting in relation to the HIV policies at the Borough Council’s health gyms and confirmed that he had requested clarification of the policies that were in place. 

Further to the Meeting – Ian Redfern has been contacted for this information.