Kent NHS trusts not consistently meeting the legal rights of deaf and blind patients to accessible information
Residents who are blind, deaf or have a learning disability are not consistently being given all the support they should by Kent health services because of their communication needs, new research shows.
The failure puts services in breach of their duty under the Accessible Information Standard, a legal requirement created by NHS England in 2016.
The standard requires that all publicly-funded health and social care providers identify, record, flag, share and meet the information and communication needs of those who use their services, to ensure equal access to healthcare.
However, evidence from Healthwatch shows that the statutory duty is being significantly compromised across England.
Here in Kent, Healthwatch Kent have consistently raised issues on behalf of the people who are D/deaf, blind, have a learning difficulty or for whom English isn’t their first language. Headlines from that feedback include:
People taking children out of school to act as translators when they attend NHS appointments
Anxiety about whether a British Sign Language or language translator will be present for a booked NHS appointment or planned treatment
Examples of people who haven’t had translators during emergency or unplanned treatment such as child birth or emergency surgery
Difficulties contacting NHS services, particularly GP surgeries, when telephone is the only given option
This situation has been made much harder for people during the pandemic when they are unable to meet GPs or health professionals face to face and so can’t use body language or hand gestures to help them.
We have been working with all the NHS Trusts in Kent over recent years to help them improve the support that they offer people. In East Kent we visited all three hospitals alongside someone from East Kent Mencap with learning difficulties to understand how difficult it would be to attend a hospital appointment. Based on our feedback, we have seen a number of improvements including:
- A new audio & Braille transcript service
- A new British Sign Language interpreting service via video
- Pictorial books to help reduce communication barriers
- Mandatory training about AIS for all staff
- A new card which Deaf people can use to indicate that they need a BSL interpreter. This was designed in partnership with Healthwatch Kent and the Deaf community
- New posters explaining the AIS standard designed in partnership with people who have learning difficulties
We've done similar projects with Kent Assocation for the Blind and BSL Community
We’ve consistently heard feedback from people who struggle to access NHS services because the support isn’t available to help them communicate. This is an everyday reality for hundreds of people in Kent so it’s great to see it being talked about at a national level today. Thanks to your feedback we’ve already managed to make some improvements but do please keep telling us your stories as together we can make a change.
Healthwatch England is warning that no one currently appears responsible for holding health and care services to account for breaching their legal duties under the standard. However, with NHS England currently reviewing the AIS, the patients’ champion has joined forces with leading disability organisations, including RNIB, RNID, Mencap and SignHealth, in calling for stronger accountability.
Our findings show clear evidence of a failure to protect the right of our most vulnerable patients to accessible information and communication support through poor accountability across our health services.
Health and services are legally required to follow the Accessible Information Standard, yet currently no one is effectively fulfilling their responsibility for holding them to account on how they put it into practice.
People want clear, understandable information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health and care and get the most out of services. For instance, without proper communication support during GP or hospital appointments patients and their families can suffer psychologically with long-term consequences for their health and welfare. This research shows that health and care services with the newly created 42 integrated care systems must act to ensure no one is excluded from access to healthcare because of their communication needs. NHS England needs to hold health and care services to account in the implementation of the Accessible Information Standard to protect these rights.
Healthwatch England and a coalition of charities, including RNIB, RNID, Mencap and SignHealth have set out five headline recommendations ahead of the NHSE’s review of the Accessible Information Standard:
- Health and care services to be held accountable for fully delivering the standard.
- Every health and care service to have an accessibility champion.
- Better IT systems so that patients can update services with their communication needs.
- Involving people with communication needs in designing better services
- Mandatory training on accessible information for all health and care staff.
