On the 19th of November, our CEO attended the European Cancer Organisation (ECO) summit in Brussels, where they joined a panel of leading experts from across the continent to join a panel discussing women and LGBTIQ people in cancer care. They explored how social bias can show up in the system, and how decision makers across Europe can tackle it.

A key issue the panel discussed was the lack of data on LGBTIQ+ cancer patients. In the UK, sexuality and gender identity are not routinely recorded on patient’s records, making it very difficult to pinpoint where the system is facing challenges, and where things need to improve. In the healthcare space, good data is absolutely paramount to decision makers; if our community’s needs aren’t reflected in the data, they are less likely to be reflected in practice. 

At OUTpatients, we are helping to tackle this issue by supporting ECO’s Europe-wide survey of LGBTIQ+ screening and cancer care. Questions cover access to cancer screening, treatment, experience, and outcomes, and any LGBTIQ+ adult in Europe can take part. If you want to help decision makers to build inclusive services that better reflect our community, then you can take the ECO survey today.

Another key topic we raised was the structural barriers that prevent our community from accessing care. We shared how a lack of inclusive screening practices continues to pose a challenge for trans patients, making early detection more difficult and contributing to poorer outcomes as a result. This is exacerbated by a lack of standardised training on LGBTIQ+ care for medical professionals. At the moment, it is largely left to individual oncologists to seek out further training on inclusive practice, meaning that good LGBTIQ+ cancer care across the network is patchy at best, and in some parts of the country almost non-existent. 

While the examples we brought to the table were specific to the UK, a theme that united attendees from across the continent was rising anti-LGBTIQ+ politics. We highlighted how the EU LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy is needed now more than ever, and how we could apply its goals to healthcare. 

We thank ECO for inviting us to speak at this year’s summit and giving us an opportunity to share our work and learnings with other organisations. It is great to share our common goal to keep the conversation around LGBTIQ+ inclusive cancer care alive across the continent.