Equality and Diversity

Medway NHS Foundation Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity. We aim to ensure that respect for equality, diversity and human rights are embedded in all areas of our service delivery, patient care, planning and employment.

We will make sure that the services we deliver are accessible, responsive and appropriate for the diverse community that we serve. We will treat patients, visitors and staff with the fairness, respect, equality and diversity that they deserve.

As a Trust, we will:

• involve patients and their families in decisions about their treatment and care. Patients should expect to be treated with dignity and respect and will not be discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
• ensure that staff members are treated fairly in recruitment, in their work and career progression. We continue to build a working environment where diversity is valued and equality of opportunity is promoted. Staff will not be bullying, harassed, abused or discriminated against on any grounds including age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief or sexual orientation.
• ensure that our practices are embedded within the Trust’s policies and procedures.

Our vision can only be realised through engagement of our people, our patients and our community and by tackling health inequalities and by promoting a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Equality and Diversity documents

The Trust has an obligation under the Equality Act 2010 to publish workforce statistics annually and to have Equality Objectives in place. Steps are being taken to improve the completeness and robustness of the Trust’s underlying reporting data.

The Trust reviews its performance against the NHS’s Equality Delivery System 2 (‘EDS2’) and our Equality Objectives for 2017-2020. Progress on EDS2, including an annual Equality and Inclusion Annual Report, and the Trust’s Gender Pay Gap Report were reported in March 2019. The Workforce Race and Disability Equality Standards and their action plans for the Trust were last published in July 2019. The Trust will be working collaboratively with other local NHS organisations to ensure best practice is implemented.