Hospital appointment during work time

[user789988]

I have an urgent scan next week for a possible cancer recurrence and it will be during working hours, my manager has told me that I will need to work the time back or take it as unpaid as the company do not pay for hospital appointments.
The company do pay for emergency dependents leave so my colleague is taking his wife for a scan the day before and getting paid (also cancer).
Is this normal in work places?

Emergency dependent leave is unpaid in out place and hospital/gp/dentist appointments need time made up for them / or unpaid. A procedure however would be classed as sick leave.

You could argue that it should be paid but offering ti work back the time might be reasonable.

I imagine it's workplace dependent. I got a breast cancel callup recently on a day I work, so I moved it to a day I don't, a couple of weeks is not going to make any difference and I will likely need a ton of other time off if is malignant. Don't want to tell them right now until I know for sure.

Firstly, good luck on your scan!

Secondly, I'm amazed that your employer doesn't allow for hospital appointments as sick leave!! Do they not pay for GP appointments either?

(But they do allow emergency dependents leave?! Also, why is your manager not being more helpful?!)

Maybe, call in sick on the day, if you have sick leave?

If you have had cancer this is treated as a disability in terms of employment rights. I think time off for a related appointment is covered here:

www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/impacts-of-cancer/work-and-cancer/types-of-discrimination-at-work#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20or%20have%20ever%20had%20cancer%2C%20the%20law,That%20would%20be%20discrimination.

Unfortunately this is similar at my workplace.

Sign yourself off sick with stress for that day. You will be too stressed about your appointment to concentrate anyway, and the self certify rules, mean they can't quibble that.

Most companies have it whereby medical appointments can be taken and the time made back. Your colleagues time off is not emergency leave as it is planned and therefore should be taken as annual leave or time made back, the latter being if the employer agree to this. You have a good reason to argue this as unfair. The company absence policy should cover this.

Don’t do this. If sickness is managed it may cause further action, take the grown up approach and explain why the situation is unfair.

Or maybe don’t abuse the system and mess it up for people who genuinely need time off for stress. There’s enough scepticism about WRS and misusing it like this only adds to the prejudice around MH sick leave.

Most companies want the time made up for medical appointments. Your other options are to book annual leave or ask for unpaid leave. But their approach is reasonable and legal.

OP has cancer possible , of course she is justifiably stressed🙄good grief.

The Equality Act doesn't mean your employer has to pay you when you miss work for medical appointments. They're allowing the op to attend her appointment, that's all they legally have to do.

After all having to have a scan to check for cancer recurrence isn't stressful at all!! What a disgusting thing to say to someone going through this

I just can’t imagine being that manager and thinking ‘yeah she definitely should owe us that time back for the cancer scan.’ 😔

I would love to know where you get these stats from about "most companies ". I haven't ever worked anywhere where an appointment like this would be either not allowed nor unpaid.

There are lots of things requiring scans other than cancer that are scary, life changing, devastating.

Maybe the manager doesn't want to be responsible for passing judgement on staff medical appointments or trying to create a hierarchy of suffering and is therefore following the policy.

We can take 1hr for a medical appointment, anything over that has to be worked back

But the day isn’t to recover from stress is it? It’s to attend an appointment. I would have thought the distinction was obvious.

All medical appointments do not have to be made up or be taken unpaid at my place of work. I’d be appalled to think of any company making staff do that. I’ve had a lot of medical appointments as part of treatment for cancer, and I can take them all in company time.

But the time is for the scan not to recover from stress. Stress leave should be taken if needed but you can’t conflate the two different reasons for needing time off.

I really don’t see how an hour would cut it. Each medical appointment takes hours, and you don’t know how long you might wait for.

What type of companies have those been?

I’ve worked for various PLCs in recent years and they’ve all required making up time for personal appointments/ taking time off/ having time off unpaid/ making such appointments outside working hours if possible.

We hired many people with complex medical needs, many parents with childcare needs, and the policy has to be fair on everyone.

It would be great if everyone could have time off for their appointments so I’m interested to find out what type of workplaces currently permit it officially as per policy?

I’m guessing in smaller companies/ divisions it could be more widespread?

@daisypond it doesn't but that's what they offer so no choice
I had a scan the other day at a hospital 25 min drive away...
an hour is ok for a GP appointment usually but for anything else I CBA and use my annual leave (health issues and working extra is knackering)

But I would never expect any of those appointments time to be caught, it’s not like people want to go or would generally be going very often.

I’ve never worked anywhere where you make up your time for any doctors or dentist appointments so it seems very alien to me.