Signing would greatly improve deaf people's GP experiences
'Deaf people have serious difficulties accessing basic healthcare services and their needs are being ignored', the Guardian reported yesterday.
According to this year's GP patient survey, thirty percent of deaf people in the UK are unemployed, permanently sick or disabled. This is three times higher than the general population.
Steve Powell, chief executive of SignHealth, the healthcare charity for deaf people, believes that fundamental issues lie at the heart of this statistic. He said, "Deaf people have serious difficulties accessing basic healthcare services and their needs are being ignored.
"At SignHealth we continually hear anecdotal tales of appalling practice in the way deaf people are treated on the NHS, but it's hard to get the exact detail. Some of our worst fears have been confirmed through a mixture of our own access report, statistics from the GP patient survey and anecdotal evidence.
"Deaf people are facing constant difficulty with telephone appointment booking systems, verbal prompts when their doctor is ready to see them, and rarely have a clear understanding of their diagnosis and treatment. We have also found examples of GPs refusing to book interpreters because they cost too much and people not understanding their medication and taking the wrong amount.
"Waiting times for interpreters in GP appointments is a massive problem. At the moment many people have to wait weeks to book a sign language interpreter who can make sure the patient and clinician are able to clearly communicate. There is an obvious link between these delays and poorer general health."
Some doctors argue that interpreters are unnecessary because a member of the family can interpret but this has clear confidentiality issues. Steve added that you only have to hear one story about a deaf parent being given a diagnosis of terminal cancer through the sign language translation of their eight-year-old child to appreciate quite how wrong this is.
SignHealth is urging GPs and hospitals to start using the online sign language interpreting service SignTranslate. This means that deaf people can have same day appointments with their doctor connecting via a remote interpreter at the click of a mouse.
Read more at the Guardian.
Comments
Totally agree that more needs to be done to improve deaf awareness by GPs. Mine is OK though there have been a few times when my name has been called from all the way down the corridor and a receptionist has had to leap into action.
I'd like to see more down by GPs and health professionals to make sure they engage with deaf children directly. Quite often, I see doctors just talking directly to their parents, even with teenagers. I meet a lot of deaf children who know very little about their deafness or who understand an audiogram. It leaves deaf children very disempowered as they get older.
Posted by: Ian | July 27, 2009 03:33 AM