Equality and Diversity Policies and Practices 2012
We promise the people of Croydon we will do our best to ensure you feel cared for by helpful and welcoming staff who respect you as an individual.
We want to provide services which allow patients, staff and visitors to feel equally comfortable irrespective of their gender, age, sexual orientation, race, beliefs or abilities.
Employment here and access to the services we provide are designed to reflect this aim and our staff work hard to maintain privacy and dignity for all.
The Trust has a duty to publish at least one Equality Objective each year in order to meet our obligations under the Equality Act 2010,
Our Equality Objectives are available here.
The Trust is implementing the Department of Health’s Equality Delivery System (EDS) to help us review our equality information, generate greater engagement with our patients and staff and plan our equality priorities.
Achieving access for all
The Trust has a Single Equality Scheme which outlines the principles of how we address any potential inequalities for people with different needs.
The Access, Equality and Diversity committee is supported by six sub-groups which concentrate on specific areas. They are as follows:
Disability, Gender and Age
These groups involve staff from across the Trust as well as representatives of local organisations including Croydon Disability Forum, Status Employment, Croydon Hearing Resource Centre, the Croydon Voluntary Association for the Blind and Age UK Croydon.
The groups continually work to improve patient care and services and have recently worked closely with the clinical teams to review and improve the sensory checks undertaken when patients are admitted to hospital. This has helped streamline paperwork and help reduce duplication.
The groups have also developed vision and hearing impairment signs for display by the bedside, if the patient wishes it. These signs can be downloaded from the documents on the right hand side of this page.
Faith and religion
Our full time hospital chaplains representing the Church of England and Free Church Denominations, and our Roman Catholic team of priests and religious are available to all patients and visitors.
Members of the Hindu and Muslim spiritual care teams visit regularly and representatives of all the major faith communities may be contacted through the chaplaincy or the hospital switchboard whenever necessary.
The hospital chapel is open daily and welcomes all who wish to pray, reflect and enjoy its peace.
The hospital chaplains can be contacted on 020 8401 3105 or via the hospital switchboard.
On call cover is provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the year.
Race and ethnicity
People from a black or minority ethnic (BME) background account for more than half the users of our emergency care services so it makes sense to ensure our services reflect this diversity.
Whether you are a visitor or patient, coming to hospital can cause a degree of anxiety. If English is not your first language, seeing a welcome sign in your own language may help you feel that you matter and give you confidence, which is why we have welcome signs in six of the most commonly red languages in Croydon available at our main hospital.
Staff can access interpreters for people admitted in an emergency. For planned appointments, if you are helping someone who may need this service please let your GP know when the referral is made.
Google Translate is available on this website and you can use it to tranlsate the text on any page into one of several languages. Some of the attached documents can also be translated using this technology.
Sexual orientation
The Trust is part of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme and is committed to improving the work place for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff. We are listed in Stonewall’s recruitment guide for students and job-switchers as a “gay friendly” employer.
Impact assessments
As the Trust develops new strategies, policies and procedures an Impact Assessment is carried out to identify any potential effect on the diverse people who provide or use our services.