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Barriers to disabled patients

Story from nhs.uk

"Barriers to disabled patients"

About: Hasland Medical Centre

The heavy metal / glass automatic door that enables disabled, infirm and elderly patients to access the medical centre with ease and in a way that patients without difficulties do so is still broken and cannot be opened without assistance for many.

I had an appointment last week and an elderly lady who was leaving the premises caught her fingers in the door, prompting me to comment that they really ought to get it fixed.

The practice seem to think that simply putting up a sign telling patients that the door is broken is sufficient and this has been up for about a year.

It says. 'Please push door. Automatic door not working'.

This is fine for someone who is able to push the door or who is not in a wheelchair but for those who aren't, it is a barrier that they still have not removed.

It would be nice for them to put another sign up next to the 'door not working' sign that apologizes to patients for the accessibility issues they may face and with clear information about when the door will be fixed, but they haven't.

It is arrogant and ignorant of the needs of people with specific access needs and therefore requires challenging.

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Responses

Response from Hasland Medical Centre last week
Hasland Medical Centre

Submitted on 02/05/2024 at 11:53
Published on nhs.uk at 11:53

Dear Patient,

Thank you for taking the time to leave your review and comments. We are very sorry to hear of this.

Sadly, the door broke down near the end of 2023. Upon being made aware of this, the practice immediately contacted the Door company to have this investigated and to repair the door. They came out the following day however it then took some time for the part required to come and have this repaired. This was beyond the practices control.

You have mentioned that a patient had injured themselves by trapping their finger in the door. We are unable to explain how this could happen and unfortunately this was not reported to us by the patient in question. Our assessment of the situation had not led us to believe there was any risk of danger to patients from the door, and there have been no reports of any injuries or close calls with the door prior to your review.

As a practice, we do accept and understand that with the door being out-of-order, this created a barrier to patients unable to use the door.

Signs were placed on the wall after some patient feedback apologising for the inconvenience and to use the intercom to request assistance should a patient require this.

We are pleased to confirm that the door has since been repaired and is fully functioning. We apologise to all patients for any inconvenience this may have caused however the length of time taken to repair the door was beyond the control of the practice.

We hope you are satisfied by the explanation above.

Warm regards,

Inspire Health Management Team

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