(Scotland) Cancer patient, employer wants me to take holiday for scans
I have cancer. It is classed as stage 4 as it cannot be cured, only managed. At the moment, things are going well treatment wise. I have immunotherapy every 3 weeks, and two scans and an appointment with my oncologist every 3-4 months. My employer has been aware of this since before my first interview with them last year. I am due to remain on treatment for - in the words of my oncologist - as long as it is working.
My contract is fully office based, although we are allowed to work from home with approval from my line manager. This is where my problem lies. I moved house in February, and as a result now have to attend a different hospital which is an hour away from the office. I fully appreciate this is my problem, and am happy to work with them to ensure they get the best out of me workwise whilst I'm not putting my health at risk. The actual treatment takes around 2 hours. To this end, I have requested that I am allowed to wok from home on my treatment days - that way I miss less actual work My line manager is not keen on this, but is apparently talking to our head of department about it.
I send copies of all my appointment letters to my line manager and HR (at their request) to keep them up to date at all times. This morning, I sent them a copy of the latest appointment to come through - one of the scans. The scan itself takes a couple of hours, and I am radioactive for 24 hours afterwards, so would be unable to go into the office anyway. I have this particular scan three times a year. I offered to work from home both before and after the appointment to minimise the disruption. This afternoon I was told that my line manager could not approve that and I'd have to take the day as holiday. I am not good at confrontation, so I agreed, but I'm not happy about it.
It is my understanding that cancer is a protected condition, and that my employer needs to make "reasonable adjustments" to allow me to attend my appointments. In my mind, the WFH compromise makes sense - they get the work out of me that I'm employed for, and I get to attend my appointments in the least stressful way possible. Am I right? Can they make me take the time off as holiday? I don't want to take the full day off every time I have an appointment - I want to work!
Where do I stand on this?
Thanks for any advice.
Edit: thank you everyone for some excellent advice. I’m going to have to put my big girl pants on and have a difficult conversation I think! The sort of thing I’m absolutely rubbish at. Will contact MacMillan and ACAS too.