2. Dignity in the chair and at the desk

Names and identity

Use the name and title the person asks you to use. If records still show a previous name, update them with consent and keep old identifiers only where legally required. Do not announce a gender history or a sexual orientation to the waiting room. If you get a pronoun wrong, correct it briefly and move on — do not make the patient manage your embarrassment.

Chaperones and clothing

Offer a chaperone for examinations that could feel intimate. Explain what you need to see and why. A genuine infection-control or radiation reason to remove a head covering should be explained, with a private space and a same-sex clinician if that helps, not barked from the corridor.

Pain, capacity and “difficult”

People with learning disability, autism, dementia, or severe anxiety are not automatically lacking capacity. Slow down, reduce sensory load, and use the consent and capacity approach from Legal and Ethical 1. Calling someone “non-compliant” often means we did not adjust the appointment.

Fees and NHS

Do not assume who can pay from accent, postcode, or appearance. Explain bands, exemptions, and private options in the same calm way for everyone. Racism at the desk (“we don’t take those patients”) is still racism if it is dressed up as a diary problem.

Clinical need still comes first

EDI does not require you to provide treatment that is not indicated, unsafe, or outside your competence. It does require you to explain that decision without hostility, and to refer on when that is the right clinical step.