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Unequal access to healthcare is a long-standing issue for our communities. Deaf people and those with hearing loss are still facing barriers to accessing services, understanding information, managing their health, and participating in treatment decisions.
Join us in calling on governments, NHS organisations, GPs and other NHS services to take action to meet the requirements of equality legislation and standards for accessible information and communication.
Millions of lives are at risk
Our latest research undertaken jointly with the charity SignHealth, unearths serious and widespread healthcare failings affecting over 7 million adults across the UK. The NHS is flouting equality law and leaving deaf people and people with hearing loss in the dark about their own health, leading to devastating consequences.
Under the Equality Act, health services must make “reasonable adjustments” to remove barriers faced by people who are deaf or have hearing loss when accessing care. This could include things like access to a BSL interpreter, or providing alternatives to the telephone for contacting services.
Despite this legal obligation less than a quarter (24%) of NHS staff say they can always meet the information and communication needs of patients who are deaf or have hearing loss. This failure to acknowledge and meet the needs patients is unacceptable and must change.
“Dad, a BSL user, face-timed me in a panic and just said ‘I can’t see. Everything is black.’ I drove him to a hospital which has an A&E especially for eyes – but no interpreter. They did lots of tests and at the end of the day they said to me: ‘can you tell your dad he’s got cancer?’ So I told him. We went home in complete shock.”
Kate 42, New Brighton
Through our campaigning we want to make sure health services across the UK meet their legal obligations to provide fully accessible care for patients who are deaf or have hearing loss. Communication support is not always available to those who need it, when they need it.
This is not good enough.
Our research tells us
We surveyed 1,378 people across the UK who are deaf or have hearing loss.
69% of respondents
say they have never been asked about their information or communication needs
25% of respondents
say they are not able to contact their GP in way that is accessible to them, this figure rises to 49% of sign language users
Only 56% of respondents
say they leave NHS appointments feeling they have fully understood the information given about their health, while over a third (34%) say they do not
The changes we want to see in each nation across the UK
Support our campaign by raising awareness and urging political representatives to make the changes we need.
In 2016, NHS England introduced the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), providing clear guidance to professionals on how to make NHS services accessible to people with disabilities and sensory loss-and setting out people’s rights to equal access to healthcare under the Equality Act.
The AIS was intended to ensure people could fully understand information they are given and fully participate in discussions about their treatment and care.
But, years on, our research shows this is still not happening. Too many health and social care providers are not complying with the Standard.
What you can do: We need you to take action and call on the UK Government to enact legislation to better enforce the Accessible Information Standard, and instigate a plan for change, to strengthen people’s rights to accessible healthcare.
In 2013, the All Wales Standards for Information and Communication for People with Sensory Loss were introduced specifically to address the barriers to accessing care. But our research shows that, more than a decade on, NHS Wales services are still failing to meet the communication needs of people who are deaf or have hearing loss, and still lack the systems and processes needed to fulfil people’s right to access healthcare.
What you can do: We need you to take action and call on Welsh Government to strengthen and enforce, with a clear timeframe for change, the All Wales Standards and other legislation that underpins people’s rights to accessible healthcare.
Our evidence shows that NHS services are failing patients who are deaf or have hearing loss across Scotland.
Scotland doesn’t have any specific guidance in place to meet the communication needs of patients as they move about the NHS, unlike other nations. Instead the Scottish Government relies on the UK Equality Act to hold NHS services to account.
This isn’t working.
What you can do: We need you to take action and call on the Scotland Government to help enforce people’s rights to accessible healthcare.
We have limited evidence of the problems that people who are deaf or have hearing loss face when accessing the NHS in Northern Ireland, although the evidence we have suggests there are similar barriers to accessing safe and effective healthcare.
In Northern Ireland NHS services must comply with the Disability Discrimination Act (rather than the Equality Act in Great Britain) and make reasonable adjustments for deaf and disabled people.
What you can do: We need your help to demonstrate the problem of inaccessible healthcare across Northern Ireland. If you’ve had a poor experience and your communication needs were not met in the Northern Irish NHS then please share your story.
Take action now
Your stories
Download the reports
- Still ignored: The fight for accessible healthcare England report (PDF 4MB)
- Still ignored: The fight for accessible healthcare report for Wales (PDF 2MB)
- Still ignored: The fight for accessible healthcare report for Wales – Welsh translation (PDF 2MB)
- Social research reports
Watch the England report in BSL
Watch the Wales report in BSL
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