Variation in patient gender and sexual identity recording within ambulance records

Health inequality among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people has been highlighted in several reports. Ambulance services have been advised to record the gender identity and sexuality of all patients treated to support monitoring of health equity. Four NHS ambulance services in England were asked for their data showing whether the completed patient record for each incident included gender identity and sexuality. All services responded; data from three were used in the analysis. Only one service had the means to record a patient's sexual orientation. Gender identity was recorded by all services but the rate of data capture as well as potential responses varied between organisations. There was little consistency between the three services regarding rates of data being captured, responses and potential answers. These variations could not be explained, although introduction of electronic patient records may impact data capture and quality.