How do our GP practices make their services accessible?
Our volunteers visited all the GP practices in the borough to get a sense of how easy it is for them to meet the Accessible Information Standard.
The Accessible Information Standards were introduced in July 2016. They were designed by NHS England to make services more accessible for people with communication needs associated with disabilities and sensory impairment. However, they were introduced with little support from NHS England and no additional resources. We expected our local providers to be struggling to fully implement the standards.
- Our mystery shoppers posed as potential new patients to see whether there were questions about their information and communication needs on each practice's registration form.
- 6 of the 29 registration forms asked about communication needs associated with disabilities and sensory impairment.
