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Quick question re Reasonable Adjustments

Taltunes

Are the NHS required to make reasonable adjustments if asked or are they exempt from the legislation?

Some staff in my local Access Team try to force me to discuss things with them over the phone even though I have told them that I do not do long phone calls - I ended up yesterday asking them to please deal with it by e-mail and when they continued to try to deal with it over the phone I terminated the call.

  • in reply to NAS36609

    Thanks.

    By coincidence I did print off 5 pages yesterday on the trust's complaints procedures etc.

    I'll bear in mind also what you said about NHS Choices

    I have an appointment with a psychiatrist next week to see if I am bipolar as well as autistic and I think I am going to wait until I receive the diagnosis, one way or another, before taking the matter any further. As I said I have plenty of other things I could be complaining about in the meantime.

    If this is widespread however perhaps it is something which the NAS needs to be taking up with the NHS.

  • in reply to Taltunes

    As NAS24859 says, they do have to provide reasonable adjustments, though it’s one thing in theory and another in practice!

    I have dealt with my NHS complaints in writing - both in letters and emails. I was directed to PALS, but I didn’t go down that route and instead went onto the relevant Trust’s website, I found details of the complaints department and wrote to them. 

    They do keep giving me phone numbers to ring, despite me telling them that’s not an appropriate form of communication for me, but I just ignore it and keep communicating in writing.

    You could try giving a review on NHS Choices, as sometimes they will respond and give you an email address to contact someone on.

  • in reply to NAS24859

    Thanks.

    The ridiculous thing from my point of view is that they were trying to deal with an original complaint at the time - they seem to be trying to see how many official complaints they can persuade me to make.

    They referred my original complaint to PALS but PALS refused to accept it because apparently they don't accept e-mails so that may be another complaint.

    Having said that I must be close to double figures in the number of different bodies I could make complaints to at the moment so I may have to prioritise and just complain about a couple and reluctantly let the others go.

  • Yes - Service providers must make "reasonable adjustments" for a disabled person if they would otherwise be at a substantial disadvantage compared with non-disabled people.

    https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support/equality-act-disability-discrimination/

    If I were you I'd make an official complaint in regards to yesterdays behavior. In the complaint, I would make it clear that you need to communicate via the written form as a RA and why. Also highlight how communicating over the phone puts you at a substantial disadvantage.