3.1.3 In health and social care

When we are unwell, we want to receive the best treatment available. However, sometimes problems are dismissed as ‘old age’, overlooked and not investigated or treated fully.

Anyone who works for the NHS or in the private healthcare sector (including professional medical staff such as consultants, doctors and nurses, receptionists, managers, security staff, cleaners, ambulance drivers) or anyone who works for a local authority (including social workers) has a duty not to discriminate against older people.

When using health or care services, the following questions may be helpful in determining whether ageism or discrimination is present:

• Are you being refused a service because of your age? (It is important to note there are some treatments for which the evidence base suggests they are not effective beyond a certain age.)
• Are you receiving a service of worse quality or on worse terms than would normally be offered because of your age?
• Is the provider behaving in a way related to your age which causes you distress, offends or intimidates you?
• Is the provider punishing you because you complain about discrimination or helping someone else complain because of an issue related to age?

If you experience age discrimination in health or care services, then you can make a complaint to the ward, hospital, care home or care provider.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint, you can take it further by making a complaint to the relevant health board (for health services) or local authority (for care services). If this doesn’t produce a satisfactory response, then you can make a complaint to a regulatory body or watchdog.

You can also get free advice and support from a specialist who can give you advice based upon your individual experiences and circumstances (e.g. from the Equality Advisory & Support Service [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ).