According to a recent study, the NHS fails to provide adequate care to lesbian and bisexual women. The study, Prescription for Change, was conducted by gay rights organisation Stonewall and De Montfort University. It surveyed over 6,000 lesbians and bisexual women on healthcare, which makes it the biggest survey of its kind outside the USA.

The survey found that UK healthcare workers have little knowledge of lesbian and bisexual sexual practices, which alienates lesbian and bisexual women and may lead to their conditions being misdiagnosed or left untreated. Indeed, one participant – Maya, from the South West – said healthcare workers just assumed she was heterosexual. She explained: “Healthcare workers continually assume I am heterosexual and ask inappropriate questions about my relationships. I am often lectured about safe sex and preventing pregnancy without being given a chance to say that I do not sleep with men anymore.”

Even though it has been unlawful to discriminate against lesbian and bisexual women in the provision of public service since April 2007, the survey found that only 49% of the people interviewed didn’t come out to their GP due to worries of discrimination. One in ten lesbian and bisexual women told the survey that they did come out to a healthcare worker, but they were either ignored or rejected when they did.

The survey found that four per cent of lesbian and bisexual women had been told by their doctor that they didn’t need to be tested for sexually transmitted infections. Despite this, a quarter of the women surveyed have tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection in the past. In addition to this, one in five lesbian and bisexual women were told that they didn’t need a smear test. This is not true and has led to one in five lesbian and bisexual women wrongly thinking that they are not at risk of developing cervical cancer.

Stonewall’s chief executive Ben Summerskill said of the findings: “Lesbian and gay taxpayers fund 60,000 posts with in the NHS yet with the marked exception of gay men’s sexual health, their specific health needs are almost invisible.”

In order to improve the current NHS service for bisexual and lesbian women, the survey has recommended that the NHS should give regular training to its healthcare workers to ensure that they stop making assumptions that all women are heterosexual. In addition to this, one of the survey’s participants – Tola, from London – believes that simply sticking up ‘gay-friendly posters and leaflets in hospitals and GP surgeries and information on lesbian, gay and bisexual specific services’ could make a difference to lesbian and bisexual women by making them feel more accepted.

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