Chamber and committees

NHS boards are responsible for providing primary medical services and for ensuring that these services recognise cultural diversity and respond to the healthcare needs of all ethnic groups and communities.

There should be no barriers to Gypsy/Travellers accessing or receiving health services and the GP registration regulations apply equally to members of the travelling and settled populations.

A GP practice can only refuse an application if it has reasonable grounds for doing so which do not relate to the applicant’s race, gender, social class, age, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, disability or medical condition. A patient does not need to be resident in a practice area to be accepted and the regulations specifically provide for applications from temporary residents who are moving from place to place. The regulations also provide for health boards to assign a patient to a GP practice as necessary.

The Scottish Government has funded and been involved in a number of programmes and initiatives to engage with the Gypsy/Traveller communities to improve access and to tackle their health inequalities. These include the introduction of a patient hand held record to improve their access to healthcare; an action research project in Lothian on mental health and wellbeing; a strategy in West Dunbartonshire to improve access to health services, and a multi agency action plan in Highland.

NHS Health Scotland works with health boards to advise and support in delivering equality and diversity, eliminating discrimination and reducing health inequalities. The Gypsy/Traveller group has now been specified within the standard ethnicity classifications for Scotland and the results of the 2011 census and increased ethnic monitoring in NHSScotland will further enhance understanding of Gypsy/Travellers’ health needs and experiences, and inform boards’ future service developments and outreach initiatives for this group.