Equality and Human Rights Commission

Organisations and people providing health and social care services must not discriminate unlawfully in providing their services to you because of your race, gender, disability, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. Service providers which are public authorities, including NHS organisations, have an additional legal responsibility to positively promote equality. Find out more about the legal duties of public authorities.

Example

A family doctor in a joint practice refers all black patients to a black doctor at the practice, solely because of their colour, not their particular needs. This constitutes direct discrimination on grounds of race.

There are limited circumstances in which discrimination may be justified. Find out more about when discrimination is lawful.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, organisations providing health and social care must make reasonable adjustments to enable customers with disabilities to use their services.