{"id":177106,"date":"2022-10-14T12:22:22","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T11:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/?p=177106"},"modified":"2022-10-21T05:38:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T04:38:49","slug":"employee-medical-appointments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legalvision.co.uk\/employment\/employee-medical-appointments\/","title":{"rendered":"Employee Medical Appointments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, your staff will need to take time off work to make a medical appointment. This may be to attend an appointment with their local GP, dentist or opticians or to attend a hospital appointment. Generally, you are not obligated to grant employees time off for medical appointments. There are certain exceptions to this, which this article will consider. It will also evaluate why you may opt to allow employees time off for medical appointments even if you are not obligated to do so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Employee Medical Appointments: Employer Obligations<\/h2>\n

Employees do not have a general right to take time off work to attend medical appointments. Therefore, you do not have to honour any requests as an employer. It is up to you if and how you allow your staff time off for appointments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, there are certain exceptions to this general rule.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Pregnancy-related medical appointments<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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The law makes an express exception for pregnant employees attending any antenatal appointment. Antenatal appointments are any medical appointments related to the employee\u2019s pregnancy or the health of their unborn baby. <\/span>
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<\/span>You must allow pregnant employees to attend antenatal appointments during working hours and pay them while attending the appointment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If you fail to do so, you substantially increase the risk of an employee making an unlawful discrimination claim against your business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Accommodating disabilities\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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The law requires employers to make <\/span>reasonable adjustments<\/span><\/a> for disabled employees where you should reasonably know that the individual in question is <\/span>disabled<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Employees with medical disabilities are likely to attend medical appointments more routinely than those without.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The key factor an <\/span>employment tribunal<\/span><\/a> will assess is whether you failed to make a reasonable adjustment. Specifically, if you have a general policy prohibiting appointments, this may be a practice that substantially disadvantages a disabled employee. By softening the policy, you would be making a reasonable adjustment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Therefore, if you are aware of an employee\u2019s disability and refuse their requests to attend medical appointments during working hours, they can indirectly claim unlawful discrimination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Therefore, while employees do not have a general right to attend medical appointments during working hours, you may need to approve requests. Failing to do so may give rise to an employee claim against your business for other protected characteristics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Medical Appointments: Practical Implications<\/span><\/h2>\n

Though the law does not require you to grant requests for medical appointments, you should consider incorporating reasonable measures in your employee absence policy. Additionally, you should specify any entitlement for appointments in each employee\u2019s employment contract.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifically, you should determine:<\/span><\/p>\n