Health passports
What is a health passport
A health passport is a resource for people with a learning disability who might need hospital treatment.
The passport is designed to be taken to hospital and health appointments. It can help you to communicate important information about your needs to doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff.
Health passports are owned by the child, young person or adult named in the document and can be completed with the help of a parent or carer.
A completed health passport can help staff to support you by providing lots of useful information about any communication needs, anxieties, likes and dislikes you may have.
The health passport is called by different names in different areas across the UK and was previously known as the traffic light document. It does not matter which health passport you bring with you. The important thing is that you share useful information with hospital staff.
Download a blank health passport
How to fill in a health passport
Watch our hospital passport video demo to find out how to fill in the form.
Transcript: Hospital Passport video demo
Using your completed health passport
Once you have completed the passport, you can:
- Staple the pages together to form a booklet, or
- Keep them in a clear plastic folder.
You might find it useful to keep a spare copy for your own records.
When you have completed your health passport, take it with you whenever you visit hospital.
It is helpful for people to email completed Hospital Passports to leeds-tr.ldautism@nhs.net or post them to Learning Disability & Autism Team, 2nd Floor, Trust Headquarters, St James's University Hospital, Beckett Street, Leeds, LS9 7TF so they can be uploaded electronically. This means that hospital staff should be able to access your Hospital Passport whenever you are in hospital
If you’re admitted to hospital for treatment overnight or for a long stay:
- Give the passport to the doctor or nurse responsible for your care
- Ask them to keep the passport with the patient notes at the end of your bed.
Don’t forget to update your passport! You will need to keep your health passport updated, especially if you have a change in medication or your medical condition.
Remember: You might be in hospital during an emergency when the doctors and nurses need to treat you quickly. Write down the most important information to allow doctors and nurses to help you.
Communication aids for hospital visits
We’ve created a pain communication resource to help people communicate their level of pain to hospital staff.
It uses a green, yellow and red traffic light system that people can point at to share where on their body it hurts and how much pain they are in.
Download our pain communication resource (PDF) or explore our Communication section to find out about useful tools that can support communication.
