Reasonable Adjustments Policy
The Family Practice
Reasonable Adjustments Policy
Introduction
The Family Practice strives to deliver high-quality patient care. This policy outlines what constitutes a reasonable adjustment, our responsibilities, and the considerations we take consider when reviewing your request.
We will take all reasonable steps to ensure compliance with the Equality & Diversity regulations and legislation.
This policy outlines our process for considering patient requests for reasonable adjustments and our commitment to enhancing accessibility for all our patients, while also detailing some of the fundamental principles underlying our legal obligations to provide reasonable adjustments.
What is a reasonable adjustment?
A reasonable adjustment is a modification to our processes to ensure all patients have access to our services. For example:
- Providing longer appointment times to support patients with learning disabilities or impairments to give more time for discussion and understanding.
- Providing an interpreter to overcome language barriers, or other equipment to amplify hearing or offering speech-to-text communication.
- Providing alternative methods of communication, i.e. email or text.
- Providing appropriate environments to support patients with sensory issues.
We will discuss requirements with patients with the intention of reaching an agreement on what reasonable adjustments can be implemented.
Legal duties in relation to disabled people
The Equality Act 2010 requires us to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled patients – defined by the Act as those with a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Duty to make reasonable adjustments as a service provider
As a service provider, we have a duty to make reasonable adjustments if the services we provide place a disabled person at a “substantial disadvantage” compared to a person with no disabilities. Our aim is to consider what reasonable adjustments can be made to remove any disadvantage.
Requesting reasonable adjustments
To request a reasonable adjustment, please ask for a form at reception or via our website: Request Reasonable Adjustments in your Healthcare - St John's Family Practice
To ensure patients are aware that we can provide reasonable adjustments, we will:
- Publish this policy on our website.
- Ask patients opportunistically during consultations.
- Inform patients via posters displayed at the practice.
- Continue to use our new patient registration questionnaire to gather information about patients’ reasonable adjustments.
What types of reasonable adjustments can we offer
Reasonable adjustment requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. There are already reasonable adjustments in place to support patients:
- Online triage service – patients can complete a request for clinical and non-clinical issues online using our triage service
- Offering longer appointment times for those with learning disability or mental health problems
- Offering a preferred appointment time of day
- Providing an interpreter/sign language
- Communicating via text (consent required)
- Providing documents with a larger font size
Responding to reasonable adjustment requests
We will endeavour to respond to reasonable requests as soon as possible. Regarding complex requests, we will work with you to agree on a reasonable adjustment to address the issue.
How to decide what is reasonable
We will consider whether the request will overcome the difficulty. How practical it is to implement the adjustment, and whether there are resources available in terms of cost.
Recording and monitoring
Reasonable Adjustments will be recorded in patient records to trigger alert flags reminding staff of the patient’s reasonable adjustments.
All staff are responsible for asking patients if they have any reasonable adjustments and updating the records accordingly. This applies to new patients and the monitoring of existing patients.
Sharing your reasonable adjustments with other healthcare providers
The NHS has introduced the Reasonable Adjustments Digital Flag tool. This enables practices to record patients’ reasonable adjustments using an approved NHS template with an option to share with other healthcare providers upon consent from the patient to do so.
Your consent will enable other healthcare providers to offer the agreed reasonable adjustment when you attend other health related appointments for example at the hospital.