It is very important to us that everyone can use our services easily, is treated with kindness and respect, and gets the same high standard of care.
People in our community have different needs, these needs might be because of a disability, language, culture, religion, or because they are carers.
This page provides some brief information on how we can support you when accessing our health and dental services.
You can also help us by telling us about any language, communication, cultural or faith needs you, or your family member, or the person you provide care for has, asking the service you are using to record this in the patient notes.
If you have undergone, are undergoing, or are planning to undergo actions to affirm your gender identity we would welcome the chance to support you in our services.
While we await official guidance following the Supreme Court Judgement in the For Women Scotland case, we are committed to always treating our trans and gender variant patients with dignity and respect.
Please let us know your identified name and pronouns and we use these in all possible communications with you; you may need to request a record change via your GP as we are limited what changes we can effect in your main health record, but we can support you in your contacts with our services.
If you are an armed forces community member please see our dedicated armed forces page.
Reasonable adjustments for patients with disabilities
The Trust has a legal responsibility in the Equality Act 2010 to make sure disabled people can access our health and dental services as easily as people who are not disabled.
This includes people with a physical disability, sensory impairment, mental health impairment, learning disability or a long-term condition such as dementia.
To make sure that disabled people can access our services and can be involved in their care and treatment choices we sometime need to make changes to how we do things. These changes are called reasonable adjustments.
Examples of reasonable adjustments which can be made include:
- Arranging the first or the last appointment of the day.
- Arranging longer appointments if you need more time to understand the information you are given.
- Providing a quiet area to wait (if available).
- Visiting you at home if you are unable to visit a clinic (if available).
- Giving you time to visit a clinic before your appointment.
- Working with you to manage any particular fears you have when using health and dental services, such as a fear of needles or a fear of dentists.
What reasonable adjustments may be needed will depend on you, as every patient is different and we are committed to ensuring your individual care meets your needs and respects your dignity and wishes.
There may be some changes that we can’t make, and this can be for different reasons such as a treatment that can only be provided in a clinic. And some adjustments may not be ‘reasonable’, the video below provides an example of this:
Accessible information and communication support for people with disabilities
Providing accessible information and communication support is an important part of making reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities.
These reasonable adjustments can help people who have sensory impairments that affect hearing, sight, and speech, or people who have learning disabilities or neurodivergent conditions that affect how they understand and communicate information.
Examples of these reasonable adjustments include:
- Using tools such as pictures or images to support communication.
- Providing information in other formats, such as Easy Read or Braille.
- Providing communication support such as a British Sign Language interpreter.
Our staff will ask you if you need reasonable adjustments for your appointment, and they will record this in your patient notes with your permission.
You can help us understand and make reasonable adjustments for you by:
- Thinking about what reasonable adjustments you need and writing them down before your appointment.
- Contacting the service before your appointment and using the words ‘I need reasonable adjustments’ to ask for them.
- Explaining what your reasonable adjustments are or what you find difficult.
- Asking for your reasonable adjustments to be recorded.
- Giving permission (consent) for your reasonable adjustments information to be shared with other health and care staff.
If you are told you cannot have reasonable adjustments, ask why. You can challenge the decision.
Language interpretation and translation
For our patients whose first language is not English, language interpretation and translation support can be very important in ensuring easy access to our services, and full involvement in care and treatment conversations.
Providing language interpretation and written translations ensures our services are accessible, safe and effective at improving the health and wellbeing of our patients.
Our spoken and written language interpretation and translation is provided by Enable 2, and we work with Signalise Co-operative for our signed language needs.
If you need an interpreter for your appointment please let the service know before you attend; this can help greatly in ensuring your appointment with us runs smoothly, and the conversations you have with our staff are clear and accurate to ensure you are fully involved in your appointment and any following care and treatment.
Communication and language support for corporate information
If you need any information from the Trust in another language or format please either contact the service you are using if you query is related to service specific information, or the Patient Services Team for general Trust information:
Telephone Number: 0800 587 0562
TextRelay: 18001 0800 587 0562