Serving all the community? The views and preferences o f lesbian and gay consumers of health care

This chapter contributes to the process of ascertaining the views and preferences of one segment of the consumer base of physical health care services, i.e., lesbians and gay men. ‘Lesbian’ and ‘gay’ are terms used to describe people ‘whose sexual and emotional feelings and behaviours are exclusively or predominantly directed towards others of the same sex’. The situation that was most commonly identified as problematic for lesbian and gay patients in health care contexts concerned the failure of health care staff to consider that patients might be lesbian or gay and that a person of the same gender accompanying a patient might be their partner. Some lesbian women said that they would prefer to be examined by a woman because they did not trust men. Provisional recommendations can also be offered on the issue of patients’ preferences regarding the gender of health care staff who are involved in their care.