Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) template
This template is provided to support the development of an EQIA for the deployment of Concentric into a healthcare organisation.
An Equality Impact Assessment is a way of assessing the effects of a change within the organisation, within the context of the Equality Act 2010. The act outlines the public sector duty to assess the impact of a change in respect of; age, disability, gender-reassignment, pregnancy or maternity, marriage or civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Description and aims of change
Please see the Value proposition section of our NHS DTAC.
Impact across the protected characteristics
Age
The introduction of digital consent across healthcare organisations has been well accepted across all age groups at other large healthcare organisations, with Concentric being used to document the consent of or for patient of all ages. Where a patient cannot access their consent information digitally, of which there is a slightly higher rate in older adults, the information can be printed. In this scenario, supported by their clinician, the patient’s signature can still be recorded digitally.
Disability
Physical disabilities have no impact on service provided. Best practice is followed with regards to accessibility, to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, allowing users to manually edit text size, navigate through the information using the keyboard, use screen readers (text-to-speech software), and print the information. Further details are within our accessibility statement.
A learning disability may change how Concentric is interacted with, due to a different consent pathway for adult patients who lack the mental capacity to consent to the treatment. In these scenarios, a Consent form 4 process is used. All patient-facing information within Concentric is aimed at a lay audience following the principles set out in the NHS content style guide.
Where patients have a physical disability that makes it difficult to travel to hospital, Concentric can support with remote pre-operative care pathways.
Consent information may need to be modified to ensure that it is appropriate given the patient’s context, this can be done within Concentric.
Gender reassignment
The gender shown in Concentric is based on the gender documented within the patient demographics database (i.e. PAS), and is usually brought through via automatic integration. Where demographic integration is in place this is re-synced on demand, meaning that a change in gender in the PAS will be reflected automatically in Concentric.
Marriage and Civil Partnership
No impact on service received.
Pregnancy and Maternity
No impact on service received.
Race and ethnicity
In the circumstances that race or ethnicity means that English is not one of the patient’s spoken languages, details of an interpreter used as part of the consent conversation can be documented within Concentric. The consent information can be translated within the browser, using the browser’s automated language translation functionality - this allows Concentric template information, as well as any custom additions or notes added by the clinician to be translated.
Religion or Belief
Concentric allows the patient to outline how their religious requirements may have a bearing on their clinical requirements (e.g. consent for blood transfusion).
Sex
No impact on service received. Availability of treatment templates for an individual does not change based on recorded sex or gender.
Sexual Orientation
No impact on service received with appropriate language used throughout the application.
Review of change and continuous improvement
Following giving consent, patients are sent an invitation to complete an optional feedback survey, outlining their experience of the use of Concentric. Patients can also give feedback directly in the Concentric patient application. The responses can be viewed by the organisation to identify areas of potential improvement.