Charter of Patient Rights and Responsibilities for People who use the NHS in Scotland - Consultation report

6. Action taken or proposed

• A complete review of the Content of the Charter has been undertaken and where it was considered appropriate revisions have been made to reflect the views expressed in the responses received.
• In order to maintain a balance in the level and type of detail within each section of the Charter some of the comments offered have, where appropriate, been incorporated within the respective supporting and more detailed individual factsheets developed to support the Charter.
• Appropriate signposting to the seven leaflets covering Access, Confidentiality, Communication and Participation, Respect, Safety, Feedback and Complaints and Hospital Waiting Times has been included at the beginning of the Charter.
• The language used within each section of the Charter has been reviewed and simplified and as far as possible and the areas of repetition have been removed or reduced.
• Reference in relation to access to support services such as advocacy, the patient transport service, spiritual care and help with health and travel costs have been included.
• Explanations to provide clarity around terms used and the roles of organisations signposted within the Charter have also been added.
• The icons used within each section have been added to the contents page at the beginning of the Charter and also at the beginning of Part 1.
• Electronic hyper links have been included to allow easier and quicker access to the different sections when viewing on line.
• Arrangements will be made for the following to be available to download from Health Rights Information Scotland (www.hris.org.uk) and the ScottishGovernment (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent) from October 2012:
  • an A4 version of the Charter
  • associated supporting (A4) factsheets
  • an A5 summary version of the Charter
  • This will allow Health Boards and others to make copies of these documents available to patients, staff and members of the public on request.
• Alternative formats including appropriate other languages; Braille, BSL and audio versions; children’s versions; an A5 summary and an Easy Read version of the Charter will be made available as soon as possible and will be easily accessible from Health Rights Information Scotland (www.hris.org.uk). Access to non-web formats will be available on request.