Equality conference focuses on needs of black, minority and ethnic patients and staff in Lincolnshire

A ground-breaking conference has recently been hosted by the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust to focus on the needs of black, minority and ethnic patients and staff.
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The Lincolnshire race equality conference, held last week, was a collaboration between ULHT, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS trust and Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The event was aimed at developing plans for how the NHS organisations can better identify and respond to the needs of staff from different ethnic backgrounds.

This is being focused on because evidence has shown that patients are benefited if staff are properly cared for.

The conference was also aimed at developing peer support networks for black, minority and ethnic staff.

Yvonne Coghill from the NHS England workforce race equality standard (WRES) team was the keynote speaker at the conference in which 50 delegates from across the healthcare community attended.

The WRES is a requirement for NHS organisations to demonstrate how they are addressing race equality issues in a range of staffing areas.

Yvonne said: “I was delighted to attend the conference and be able to talk about race equality in relation to high quality care, patient satisfaction and patient safety.”

Information shared at the conference revealed that 10.9 per cent of staff working in Lincolnshire hospitals are black, minority and ethnic (BME).

This only works out as 1.5 per cent of the BME community living in Lincolnshire.

The chair of Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Paul Devlin added: “This has been an important event for our trusts in Lincolnshire.

“We are learning and challenging ourselves about what more we need to do for black, minority and ethnic staff, patients and their families.”

The event received excellent feedback from the delegates and a commitment has been made to host a similar conference in 2017.