In an excellent article, written for the King’s Fund, Deborah Fenney has explored the challenge of getting a GP appointment. For many of us this is often a challenge at the moment, but for many disabled people, access to their GP has long been a problem. The first paragraph of her atricle s below, with a link to the full article at the foot of it.
The experiences of people with communication needs in general practice are particularly stark – a recent review of the Accessible Information Standard highlighted that only half of this group had an accessible way to contact their GP. The review also found that more than a third of health professionals have never received training about this standard, despite it being a legal requirement for all NHS organisations since 2016. Poor experiences trying to access primary care can lead to people giving up on engaging with health care, with all the risks that entails. It’s vital that we tackle ableism in health care – so what can GPs do?
