NHS trusts spent over £45,000 on installing and maintaining pedestrian crossings with the colours of the LGBT flag during the pandemic, a Freedom of Information response has uncovered.
More than 20 were found to have invested in the crossings, including the South West Yorkshire Partnerships and Sherwood Forest trusts, which spent £5,000 and £2,780 respectively.
The request, submitted by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, uncovered that the Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust had spent the most, paying out £11,000 on four rainbow crossings between 2020 and 2021.
‘Pointless paint job’
The campaign group also discovered some trusts had reversed earlier work, including Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, which removed its two rainbow crossings after spending nearly £3,000 putting them in place.
Research Director for The Taxpayers’ Alliance, Duncan Simpson, said: “NHS managers should not be splashing out on pointless paint jobs.
“With working households facing the looming health and social care levy, patients expect to see hospital bosses focus their funds on the frontline. Not a penny more of taxpayers’ cash should be wasted on rainbow crossings.”
Rainbow badge scheme
Last year, NHS Scotland was blasted after leaked documents revealed that the trust would monitor participants of an LGBT-themed badge campaign.
The NHS Pride pledge, devised by the Scottish Government with input from Stonewall, encouraged staff to show their willingness to “speak up and challenge intolerance”. Upon signing, participants would then be presented with rainbow enamel badges.
But the Government briefings encouraged boards to track the number of badge wearers “and basic info on staff groups wearing the badge”, a move labelled “sinister” by the LGB Alliance.
