NHS South of Tyne and Wear is committed to embedding equality, diversity and human rights into everything it does.
Put simply, a lack of understanding and respect for people’s human rights is bad for their health. On the other hand, the use of a human rights based approach can significantly improve people’s health outcomes by directly supporting the delivery of more effective, better quality, ‘person-centred’ health care. We also have a legal duty to take steps to protect human rights and promote equality.
Meeting our legal duty
As a public sector organisation NHS South of Tyne and Wear are statutorily required to ensure that equality, diversity and human rights are embedded into all our functions and activities as per the Equality Act 2010, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the NHS Constitution. In the exercise of our functions we will have due regard towards the need to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
- Foster good relations between people who share protected characteristics and those who do not.
This means that PCT Boards and its employees should:
- Work towards removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
- Take steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people.
- Encourage people from protected groups to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.
Our aim is to uphold these objectives and to close the gap in health inequalities.
Our Objectives & Actions - 2012-2013
Getting it right
To improve the work we do, we undertake Equality Analysis at different stages to ensure that we are actively promoting equality. Our Equality Analysis provides details of the assessments we've completed.
As a public body, we have a legal obligation to publish information about the make-up of our staff by gender, ethnicity and disability. This information is available through our annual reports provided further below on this page.
In addition to the staff information, we as a public body also have a responsibility to publish information about healthcare services and patients in the area of NHS South of Tyne and Wear.
Please use the following links to visit these areas on our website:
Our report addressing health inequalities and mortality may also be of interest to you.
Following are few examples of our proactive work which has been undertaken to address some of the issues that may have arisen during Health Equity Audits or Equality Impact Assessments.
Access of NHS Stop Smoking Services Reports
Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Reports