Improving access to reasonable adjustments for patients with cancer

Healthcare providers are legally required to ensure that everyone has equal access to healthcare services. For people with disabilities and diverse needs, this can mean providing them with access to reasonable adjustments.

Examples of reasonable adjustments may include offering a double appointment for someone who requires an interpreter, or who may need extra time to process information due to having a learning disability.

Reasonable adjustments are important for people receiving cancer treatment because they help patients get timely access to:

  • Screening
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatment
  • Support services

Making adjustments for people with diverse and complex needs isn’t always straightforward. Limited resources and other issues in the health and care system mean that it can be challenging to address the range of physical, emotional and logistical factors that need to be accounted for, when putting reasonable adjustments into practice.

Project aims

We want to explore and understand the experiences of people who received cancer treatment while also requiring reasonable adjustments to be put in place for them.

We will conduct focus groups with people (or their carers or family members) who have been treated for cancer AND who have one or more of the following long-term conditions:

  • Learning disability/disabilities
  • Autism
  • Dementia and/or other cognitive impairment
  • Sensory impairment (e.g. hearing loss/sight loss and impairment)
  • Severe mental health condition
  • Physical disability

What we hope to achieve

Our focus group findings will inform the development of a training resource that supports staff to facilitate reasonable adjustments for patients receiving treatment for cancer. We hope this will lead to better experiences for patients who need reasonable adjustments.

Lead collaborators

Partners on this project

North Bristol NHS Trust

North Bristol NHS Trust is one of the largest teaching trusts in the country and serves the population of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. Their internationally renowned specialist areas include neurosciences, renal, orthopaedics, major trauma, urology, plastic surgery and neo-natal intensive care.

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust is a dynamic group of hospitals in the heart of Bristol and Weston-Super-Mare, with over 100 clinical services across ten sites. They offer care to the people of Bristol, Weston-Super-Mare and the South West, and have an international reputation for cardiac surgery, paediatric services, oncology and bone marrow transplantation. They are the largest centre for medical training and research in the South West.