Use of colour-coded wristbands to improve care for people with learning disabilities in general hospitals
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Use of colour-coded wristbands to improve care for people with learning disabilities in general hospitals

Kit Hitchcock Staff nurse, Community Assessment and Treatment Service, East and North Herts Learning Disability Service, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Stevenage, England

People with a learning disability often experience health inequalities. Inquiries and reports have detailed the possible catastrophic consequences of inadequate healthcare for people with learning disabilities, their families and carers. This is despite the Equality Act 2010 specifying that providers have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to enable the delivery of adequate and efficient services.

This article reviews the literature on reasonable adjustments to explore if the introduction of colour-coded patient identification wristbands for people with learning disabilities who are admitted to general hospitals could improve safety, experience and outcomes and influence the provision of a reasonably adjusted healthcare service.

Learning Disability Practice. doi: 10.7748/ldp.2018.e1897

Citation

Hitchcock K (2018) Use of colour-coded wristbands to improve care for people with learning disabilities in general hospitals. Learning Disability Practice. doi: 10.7748/ldp.2018.e1897

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

kit.hitchcock@hotmail.co.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Published online: 22 November 2018

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