Press release
BSL update from Abigail Gorman, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at SignHealth.
“Big update today, we are publishing the results from our NHS Accessible Information Standard (AIS) survey.
And it’s clear Deaf people are still being shut out of NHS services. Five years of the AIS and we are still waiting for change.
We had an incredible response to our survey last autumn. Your responses told us that:
- Only 1 in 10 disabled people have equitable access to healthcare, and only 7% of Deaf people.
- 81% of disabled people had a health appointment where their communication needs were unmet, while half of Deaf people reported that their needs were rarely or never met.
- Training linked to the AIS has never been provided at over a third of health services, rising to 54% in hospitals and health clinics surveyed.
We know that poor access, misunderstandings and communication barriers leads to poorer health outcomes for Deaf people, this was clear in our Sick Of It report, 2014.
The report highlights our lived experience as patients, shares insights from health professionals and identifies urgent steps that must be taken by the NHS to ensure access to the healthcare we need.”
Full report here
