Agenda item

Agenda item

West Herts Hospital Trust

Minutes:

·      The health needs of the deaf community are not as well met as they should be. If the support they need is not available at primary level and/or public health messages are not accessible then patients present at A&E. 

·        The departments at the hospital trust do not all use the same computer systems. The audiology department has its own patient management system. Their system allows up to five ‘flags’ which can be used to indicate if a patient has sensory needs and any communication preferences. The system used by other departments does not necessarily have this facility.

·        The trust is procuring a new computer system which should have this functionality. It will be operational within the trust in the next three to five years. In addition, the trust is looking into an electronic referral system which would be able to forward this information from GP records.

·        Patients who are profoundly deaf do not wear hearing aids and are more likely to be trying to access departments other than audiology.  For those who are hard of hearing there are good systems in place to meet their needs. 

·        Hertfordshire Hearing Advisory Service (HHAS) has introduced hospital packs. These address immediate needs for hospital stays and include labels stating deafness and somewhere to store hearing aids. 

·        Labels on patients’ notes indicating deafness have been said to infringe confidentiality – although this is contrary to some deaf people’s wishes.  Deaf people do not necessarily see this as an issue and would welcome waiving their confidentiality in this regard in order to have the communication support they need. It would be considered a reasonable adjustment. Long term, however, an electronic solution is needed.

·        In order to book an interpreter, staff within the medical departments complete a form and send it to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).  There has been an increase in demand for interpreters since 2016; with demand rising from 2149 requests to over 4000 requests in 2019. This data does, however, also include foreign language interpreters.

·        WHHT has set up a committee called ‘Let me see you, let me hear you’ which focused on accessibility issues.

·        HHAS have been promoting digital interpreting services to WHHT including one called ‘Interpreter Now’. This is a stable, 24/7 service which is likely to represent a cost-saving to the trust as it is paid per minute and avoids minimum hours and travel costs.

·        The audiology team are well-trained in deaf awareness and communicate well with their patients. While pockets of training exist on communicating with the deaf, including for newly-qualified doctors and receptionists, there does not appear to be any systematic trust-wide deaf awareness training.

·        The trust does have a disability champion who seeks to raise awareness of deaf issues and basic BSL signs.

·        One simple solution used by the audiology department is Type Talk or Relay UK – which is a three-way interpreting service.  The deaf person types to one person who communicates directly with the health professional. 

·        There are two specialist units in Hertfordshire which draw large numbers of deaf people to the area who will visit the hospital. The signage outside the main building has ‘welcome’ in many languages but not in BSL; adding this would be a symbolic gesture for the local deaf community.

·        This task group is timely and coincides with the launch of Hertfordshire County Council’s sensory strategy.

 

 

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