Tip Cards
Improving the way that GP practices meet the needs of disabled people.
Background
Fair for All – Disability and the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland) have been working in partnership for some time to support GP Practices improve access to disabled people. Last year, both organisations organised an awareness raising event for GPs and Practice Managers and most recently, have been working on the production of tip cards.
The information in the tip cards have been adapted from the Fair for All – Disability guidance ‘Achieving Fair Access’ to assist all staff within NHSScotland improve access to NHS services for disabled people.
The tip cards are not meant to be a comprehensive resource on all disabilities but they will help staff with some quick pointers to meeting the individual needs of people with specific impairments.
The concept of the cards was developed by Lynn Waddell, former Senior Practice Development Officer with Fair For All - Disability, on behalf of the Fair For All – Disability team, following her visit to North Carolina University – a study visit awarded to her by Forth Valley health board.
During her time at North Carolina, Lynn was shown some of the tools that are used by emergency services to enable them to communicate with people with disabilities during an emergency situation.
Along with Dr John Duncan, Executive Officer of RCGP Scotland, Lynn developed this idea into a resource which could be used by GPs and other NHS staff including, A&E staff, ambulance staff and the Blood Transfusion Service.
The Next Steps
The Tip Cards have proven to be extremely popular and have been viewed favourably by NHS Boards as a useful resource.
Demand for the Tip Cards has been high, with not only interest from acute services, but also Community Health Partnerships and Local Health Partnerships.
Therefore Fair For All - Disability and NHS Health Scotland are developing a system to enable NHS Boards to order and purchase bulk quantities of the Tip Cards to distirbute to their staff.
However, before more Tip Cards are printed they will be evaluated by Fair for All - Disability and the RCGP to establish if more information needs to be added. To learn more about the evaluation and to download the evaluation questionnarie please visit Tip Card Evaluation
Information on the tip card bulk ordering system will be published here once the evaluation is complete.
View the Tip Cards