United Kingdom: NHS Reasonable Adjustments Digital Flag

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The NHS is apparently rolling out a "reasonable adjustment flag" to share details of physical, sensory, communication & other impairments across the NHS.

Tweet: https://twitter.com/user/status/1803035418528518212

("We have started to roll out the Reasonable Adjustments Digital flag across the NHS and publicly funded care, helping it to become part of a standard approach to care and treatment for all disabled people."; June 18 2024).

More info: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/reasonable-adjustment-flag

Apparently the flags are to be added to a patient's record by a GP. One of the examples given is "a patient who is sensitive to loud noises and would be more comfortable in a low noise environment".

 

Wow, wll spotted Nightsong!

Just stepping outside of the feeding issues for a moment.... to have a flag for adjustments on our NHS records could be hugely helpful in a much wider sense for us all, disabled people in general.

I think, if it works as described so staff can see it on records, it would help me a lot in all my endless hospital appointments for non-ME-related things. eg colonoscopy, hernia, gynae, general surgery depts. Asking for adjustments is really hard & to have a flag on my notes to back me up when i ask for them could make quite a big difference, especially when coming across 'non-believers'.

That said its not without risk, in terms of what is actually said within the flag, readers interpretations of it - what about when one wants to avoid the 'ME/CFS' stigma & not announce it etc. It may have pros & cons

 

Does anyone have any personal experience of getting this flag on their records?

 

No, but I've just written mine down and will try handing them to my new GP next week!

Start as you mean to go on, as they say.

 

wondering how you got on Kitty?

no pressure to share of course

 

well of course not... that would be to 'medicalise' ME/CFS

 

He was a nice fella, took the short document, said he'd read it, and that the flags were a good idea. My appointment was about my newly-developed psoriasis, though, and that's what we mainly focused on.

I'll have to see whether it appears on my records—I suspect the practice admins do that, thought I'm not sure. I'm not going to push it yet, as I've only had the one appointment there, but I will keep an eye on it.

 

Just bumping this up, wondering if anyone had any more experience with it?

 

I'm a bit confused - the two links in that tweet to YouTube are dead, and the NHS link goes here, where it's unclear to me whether the flag is just intended for people with learning difficulties (though I'm not reading well at the moment and might have missed something).

Is it intended for non-learning-disabled people as well?

 

Yes. It’s for anyone with an impairment.