Equity in care

Awareness of healthcare disparities experienced by marginalised communities is encouragingly on the rise in recent years. Whether as a result of a person's socioeconomic status or their race, issues with access to healthcare, increased health risk and discriminatory treatment are being identified. However, very little conversation takes place around the health and healthcare of people belonging to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual, queer or questioning and other sexual identities (LGBTQ+), and how are LGBTQ+ paramedics treated around the world?

In the UK, it is known that LGBTQ+ people experience disproportionately poorer care and health outcomes (NHS, 2021) including worse cardiovascular health (Caceres et al, 2020) and factors which may result in higher vulnerability to COVID-19 (LGBT Foundation, 2020). Unfortunately, many aspects of health receive little attention in LGBTQ+ populations compared with topics such as HIV and substance use (Caceres et al, 2020). However, evidence shows that adults within these communities have worse cardiovascular health relative to cisgender heterosexual people (Caceres et al, 2020). For instance, transgender women on gender-affirming hormone therapy experience higher incident myocardial infarction, venous thromboembolism, ischaemic stroke and cardiovascular mortality than cisgender individuals (Caceres et al 2020). This is just one example of many and further research and development of culturally appropriate resources, training, interventions and care are required.