Awarded Gold for championing LGBTQ+ health in Southwark
The New Mill Street Surgery in Bermondsey and Villa Street Medical Centre in Walworth have become the first two GP practices in Southwark to achieve accreditation under the Pride in Practice initiative, with an impressive gold level award.
Pride in Practice is the LGBT Foundation’s accreditation scheme, working with primary care services to ensure LGBTQ+ people receive inclusive, high-quality healthcare, and supporting them to create welcoming environments that help reduce health inequalities.
Both practices demonstrated sustained commitment to improving the experiences of their LGBTQ+ patients by engaging fully with the Pride in Practice training, reviewing and strengthening their policies and clinical systems to be more inclusive, and ensuring all staff, both clinical and nonclinical have ongoing knowledge and confidence to provide high quality, person-centred care.
They also evidenced best practice across the five pillars of the accreditation, including inclusive communication, data monitoring, community engagement, and proactive health promotion.
Achieving the gold award signals to patients that The New Mill Street Surgery and Villa Street Medical Centre are safe, welcoming, and affirming environments for LGBTQ+ communities. Patients can expect greater confidence that their identities and experiences will be understood and respected, increased trust in disclosing information related to their health, and improved access to inclusive, informed, and responsive care. This award shows the practice’s commitment to continually improving outcomes and reducing health inequalities for LGBTQ+ people.
Laura Ross, Practice Manager at The New Mill Street Surgery, said, “receiving the Pride in Practice award is a meaningful achievement for our whole team. It reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring all patients, including those from the LGBTQ+ community, feel safe, understood, and valued when accessing care. We want every person who walks through our doors to know that this is a place where they belong.”
Tilly Wright, Manager Partner & Practice Manager at Villa Street Medical Centre, said, “The Villa Street Medical Centre team are absolutely delighted to be awarded Gold Standard for Pride in Practice. The LGBT foundation training was really informative, opening up lots of further discussion across the whole practice team, developing our confidence, helping us to reflect and consider how we can best provide welcoming, safe, caring and effective services for our LGBTQ+ patients. Southwark has the third largest LGBTQ+ community in the country and taking part in Pride in Practice has given us access to a wide range of information and local networks so we can continue to build on this approach and better support our LGBTQ+ patients.”
A further 11 GP practices in Southwark have commenced the accreditation programme. Three of the 11 practices are on course to complete the programme by the end of March 2026, and all are on track to achieve a gold award.
The Southwark Pride in Practice initiative is part of the Inclusive Surgeries programme which is a joint programme between Southwark Public Health and NHS South East London. The aim of the programme is to create a primary care service in Southwark that is equitable, accessible, and inclusive for all residents. The initiative is currently commissioned to run over a two-year period (from June 2025) for all GP practices in Southwark.
Rebecca Jarvis, NHS South East London Director of Partnership Delivery and Sustainability for Southwark, added, “The Pride in Practice Gold Award is a significant, evidence-based accreditation from the LGBT Foundation. It confirms our commitment to excellence in healthcare for LGBTQ+ patients. It also signifies that practices in Southwark are going the extra mile to embed inclusive, patient-centred care into their core delivery, ensuring the community feels safe, respected, and understood.”