Doctors have been advised to display rainbow posters in their waiting rooms to encourage gay and bisexual patients to come out to their GP. The British Journal of General Practice says this could increase the proportion of gay and lesbian patients who disclose their sexual orientation to their GP. At present this is about 50 per cent.
Although the initiative smacks of the slavish desire to win favour with the sexual diversity campaign and fulfil the alleged requirements of the 2010 Equality Act, there are more serious considerations. Health officials argue that LGBT people are at greater risk of certain conditions, such as mental ill-health and those associated with heavy drinking, and that knowing their orientation is important for their care.
There are also significant public health problems associated with this community – elevated levels of STDs and especially syphilis, continuing undiagnosed HIV infection, and a hepatis C epidemic that doctors need to address.
But how comfortable most doctors feel about warning their patients about these dangers and advising on how to prevent them, as well as treating them, in the hazardous ‘hate crime allegation’ climate they operate in, the British Journal of General Practice does not tell us.
How the NHS can find money for politically correct virtue-signalling when it cannot find the money to treat patients, and GPs cannot find time for home visits, is a mystery. Instead of getting patients to ‘come out’ to their doctor, perhaps they should consider how best to get the doctor to come out to the patient.
