Practice failed to properly consider patient's requests for adjustments under the Equality Act

What happened

Mr D was newly registered with the Practice. He was autistic and noise, lights and other people affected him, which made it difficult for him to sit in a waiting room. He also found building relationships with people difficult and this could take time.

Mr D asked for two adjustments to be made; when attending the Practice for appointments, after letting reception staff know he had arrived, he wanted to be able to wait in his car until the GP was available. He said staff could call him on his mobile to let him know to come in.

He also wanted to be able to see the same GP where possible, even if this meant waiting a day or two until that named GP was available. This would have been a slight adjustment to the Practice's appointment policy (call for a same day appointment with whichever GP is available or pre–book an appointment three to four weeks ahead). Mr D accepted there would be occasions where this was simply not possible, such as if the named GP was on leave.

The Practice refused to make either adjustment.

What we found

The Practice was obliged to consider Mr D's requests for adjustments in line with the Equality Act 2010. The Equality Act Codes of Practice expect an organisation to consider certain criteria when it decides whether or not it can agree to adjustment requests. The Practice did not consider the requests against these criteria and it did not have a clear process for doing this.

A member of Practice staff had agreed to the first adjustment before she had authorisation to do so. The Practice also failed to properly understand what Mr D was asking for regarding the second adjustment.

The Practice's failure to look at Mr D's requests in the way it should have caused him anger, sadness and frustration.

Putting it right

The Practice acknowledged the failings and apologised to Mr D for the emotional impact they had on him.

The Practice paid Mr D £200 to recognise the emotional impact of the failings.

The Practice also developed a standard procedure for considering requests for adjustments in line with the Equality Act 2010. It sent this to Mr D and explained how it would be implemented and monitored.

In addition to our recommendations, two of the Practice partners received equality and diversity training, and the Practice also put in place a new, up–to–date equality and diversity policy.

We considered the Practice had fully acknowledged what had gone wrong and demonstrated serious commitment to putting this right.