We anticipate and meet the needs of disabled people so they can access services and employment opportunities
Disabled people are a key group affected by health inequalities because they often live in poverty and experience discrimination accessing health services.
We know, for example:
- Many disabled people find it difficult to access mainstream transport and rely on more expensive transport, such as taxis. This can make it difficult and more expensive to get to healthcare appointments.
- Disabled people may be at risk of exclusion from access to digital services. Flexible systems such as phone or online appointments are often not available to disabled people either because they are not accessible options, or hospitals and surgeries don’t use them.
- People with learning disabilities face barriers accessing health services, which are compounded by communication difficulties and a lack of support provided by organisations and wider society.
- Evidence from NHS Lothian staff, patients and equality organisations tell us we don’t always know what people’s additional needs are in advance. We don’t record and have this information available to staff so they can make sure people’s needs are met or send information out in the right language or accessible format. We have been told we should make more patient information available in Easy Read, Large Print, British Sign Language (BSL) and plain English.
- We have been told we should proactively encourage and support disabled people and older people, and their carers, to visit health care settings or offices to orientate themselves before their appointments.
- Disabled people are less likely to be in employment and more likely to be unemployed. Only 1.9% of NHS Lothian workforce declared themselves as disabled, compared to an 32% of Scottish adults.
We have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. This requires us to take positive steps to ensure that disabled people can access our services, and can access and progress in employment. It is a cornerstone of the Equality Act 2010 and goes beyond simply avoiding discrimination. We are required to anticipate the needs of disabled people using our services and so far as is reasonably practicable, to make sure the access they enjoy is as near as possible to that enjoyed by the rest of the public.
The UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has raised concerns about the UK’s legal standards to make services accessible to disabled people, and austerity measures that have prevented improvements in accessibility for disabled people.
Over the next 5 years
We will improve how we use evidence
- We will accurately record and use information about patients’ additional needs on our TrakCare healthcare information system used in secondary care to make sure disabled people can access our services.
- We will improve our understanding of the representation of disabled people across the organisation and, if necessary, take action.
We will listen to people with lived experience and act
- Working with disabled people’s organisations, we will establish formal structures to hear the voices of disabled people and use their lived experience to help implement and uphold the rights in the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
We will improve our services
- We will provide information in accessible ways
- We will update and implement our BSL Action Plan.
We will support our staff
- We will ensure staff have a good understanding and awareness of disability, including the social model of disability, and how to make reasonable adjustments to our services.
- We will publish and implement our workforce reasonable adjustment policy.
