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Homophobic comments by a staff member

Posted By Janzq3

"Homophobic comments by a staff member"

About: Wathwood Hospital

(as a staff member posting for a patient/service user),

Sitting in the day room this afternoon (crowded day room) I was dismayed when a member of staff made a homophobic comment about a patient, based upon the way they were dressed. Further to my dismay, the staff member repeated this. From what I have seen, this kind of attitude is not uncommon here. What was more extraordinary was the apparent behaviour of the manager - I observed them laughing and patting the member of staff on the back, which seemed like they were condoning this behaviour.

And I am concerned about the possible come back upon myself for daring to raise this issue.

Service user at Wathwood hospital

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Responses

Response from Philip Dickinson, Operational Manager, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust 11 years ago
Philip Dickinson
Operational Manager,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Submitted on 07/08/2012 at 09:46
Published on Care Opinion at 09:57

This has caused serious concern, a manager has been tasked to look into this. They will produce a report to identify any lessons that can be learnt.

We are working to ensure such issues are addressed and have recently formed the patient LGBT group. We are also rolling out RESPECT training in October looking at anti bullying and the respecting others.

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Response from Jane Danforth, Involvement & Experience Officer, Involvement, Experience and Volunteering Team, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust 11 years ago
Jane Danforth
Involvement & Experience Officer, Involvement, Experience and Volunteering Team,
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Hello, my name is Jane Danforth. My role involves helping our service users, volunteers and staff to understand that Notts Healthcare wants to hear stories about our services. We reply to every story and it really helps us to improve what we do, how we do it and to hear about what works well too.

Submitted on 07/08/2012 at 14:43
Published on Care Opinion at 14:54

picture of Jane Danforth

Thank you for responding so promptly Phil.

The Trust is very clear on policies around homophobia and does not tolerate comments of this nature by staff or patients.

Dear Service user at Wathwood.

Sometimes people do not always mean to offend and I am sorry you felt the comments to be offensive. This could be an opportunity to have a chat openly about this with the people concerned without any fear of reprisal . We must always be very careful not to confuse friendly banter with comments intended to hurt or riducule and sometimes this needs to be pointed out to those people in order to raise awareness. Please don't feel that you would be exposed to a comeback upon yourself as it is crucial for the Trust to be open and honest when things like this arise and to work together to create a positive environment.

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