To expect this employee to make appointments in her own time?

[Womanager]

Name changed for this.

I manage an employee with various long term health conditions. She works part time (mornings only), but it seems like every time she has a hospital appointment, she makes it in the mornings so she has to request time off work to attend. We have a policy regarding paid time off for appointments, but this women seems to be abusing it.

WIBU to ask her to make appointments in her own time?

Yeah only she is covered under the equality act because of health conditions. Like others say clinics have various windows - my renal consultant is only at my local hospital one afternoon a month for example otherwise I'd have to see them in London. Things aren't always straightforward the nhs.

I used to work part time mornings and if an appointment came up during these times I would make the hours up during the week by working in the afternoon or a full day to top up hours
If you work full time this is not possible but part timers can usually do this if I hadn't I would have felt I was being unfair as I was paid to work a set number of hours a week
If for any reason I could not work the set hours then I would only be paid for the hours I did work

If she has long term medical conditions she will be covered by the equalities act.

I get that it’s a pain from your POV but it’s very naive to think the patient has any control over when appointments take place

Rescheduling often means you have to wait quite a bit as the appointments are a fair bit away. I had an appointment rushed through, it still took weeks and when I had to reschedule the nearest one was a good month away. That's not great if you have an ongoing issue so sometimes you just have to take what your given.

Of course YANBU. Ask her to move them and show she’s tried.

Many hospital appts will be against her control, but why not just chat to her about it and ask if there's any way she can attend some appts on her day off and see what she says

If they are hospital appointments, she really didn’t get a say in them!

She has long term health issues.Give her a break. She can’t be off that often. Medical appointments are not always that flexible.

a) if she has long term health conditions it’s entirely likely she is covered under the Equality Act.

b) it is very unlikely she has any choice at all as to when these appointments are.

Does the policy state that there is no limit to how much paid leave is available for appointments?

My RA clinic only runs in the morning and as for related appointments, they have told me they are allocated and I didn't really have a say. I work part time and have had a similar problem, but there isn't much I can do about it.

I have offered to make time up but my employer has the same policy as you and my manager was told by HR it would be discrimination to ask me to do this when no one else has to

She has several chronic conditions that require hospital treatment and MRI scans, and you think she has control over the appointments? Ask her to make the time up, sure, but she's clearly having a tough time with her health.

I'm in this situation. Only work mornings because I have health conditions. I dont have any control over when my appointments are unfortunately, often clinics are at set times and days. My work has a policy of paid time off for appointments but I tend to only use this if its something quick which means I'll be back in work within an hour, some of my appointments take a whole morning in which case I tend to book annual leave.

It's not that simple. In theory you will often get some element of choice over an initial hospital appointment, though in practice it often isn't much choice at all. Follow ups are generally at the department's convenience.
My hospital's ENT clinic, for example, is every other Tuesday afternoon. That's it.

To give you an idea, I had to reschedule a consultant's appointment last Friday - the new appointment is in September.

Owing to cuts, clinics are only run on Wednesday mornings once every fortnight. They used to run Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon every week.

Does she need to take her entire shift off every time? Clinics often run late, but if it's
an 11am appointment could she come into work first and go to the appt from work?

If you know these are all genuine, necessary appointments there isn’t much you can do except remind her to express a preference for afternoon appointments if possible when she has to book anything.

Not sure if there is any limit on full pay vs SSP kind of pay if you’re off more than a certain amount over a year for health but otherwise there isn’t much you can do unless you think she’s taking advantage somewhere.

Well lucky old you for not having a medical condition. Hopefully one day you might gain some empathy. YANBU

OMG of course I meant YABU!!

You don't usually get to choose when your hospital appointments are, do you. It's not like booking a hairdressers appointment, you get what you are given. But as a part tiner I would be offering to make up the time.

And if you rearrange them you could end up with a long wait. I had to rearrange one for ds last month as he was having surgery that day under a different consultant. His next appointment is now September - 9 months after the last appointment when he is supposed to be on 3 month follow ups

Talk to the job centre,with her, it is possible she can get funding to pay for a temp. She needs to speak to a disability employment advisor and ask for a workplace assessment.

As others have said often you have no choice about appointments, certain clinics are on a morning or an afternoon on a particular day of the week. Sometimes a clinic is once a month etc.

Also you don't know if she has to give a fasting blood test or if she is radioactive after a scan.

I have a long term health condition and any hospital appointments relating to that are always paid and I don’t have to make the time up. It’s in my OH report. It’s not so relevant now but was a life saver when I was part time as the clinics didn’t run every day. Maybe it’s the same. I’m not allowed paid time off for routine dentist though, hence waiting three months for a filling until annual leave 🤦‍♀️

YABU. Last time I had treatment via a hospital clinic, appointment letters were sent to you stating date and time, and if you tried to phone the number on the letter they just let it ring out.

All you would be doing if you become more exacting about this is putting someone with a health condition between a rock and a hard place. She probably has little to no control over the timing of the appointments.

Does she have much say over the apt time? Our policy is GP- make the time back, hospital- time isn't owed, on the grounds hospital apts are usually dictated to you (in my experience).

YABVU

You don’t tend to get a choice with hospital appointments. I hope you’re never ill & have to take time off!