Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 18693
Location: (Formerly) Great Britain
Posted:
Thu 18 Jun 2009 8 24 am
Gipsies and travellers should be given priority in NHS hospitals and GP surgeries, doctors have been told.
They will be fast-tracked for doctors, nurses and even some dentist appointments above all other patients.
GPs have also been told to see any travellers who simply walk in without an appointment, even if all consultation times for the day are full.
They will also be given longer consultations than other patients. Five or ten minutes is the average but travellers will be given 20 minutes and allowed to bring relatives into the consulting rooms.
Staff will be given 'mandatory cultural awareness' training so they can fully understand what it is like to be a traveller or gipsy.
It raises the prospect that other patients will suffer worse healthcare and have to wait even longer to see their GP.
The guidelines have been introduced because, under race laws, gipsies and travellers are defined as minority ethnic groups and the NHS is obliged to consider their special needs and circumstances.
Yet no special treatment is promised for other groups such as those from the Asian sub-continent or Africa.
The guidance also encourages Primary Care Trusts to establish new services for travellers if none exist, and to designate a senior manager to be a named lead for 'Gipsy and Traveller Health'.
The rules form part of the Primary Care Service Framework, drawn up by the NHS Primary Care Commissioning - an advisory service for local health trusts - to help all PCTs understand the Department of Health's policy.
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