A shocking report in the Scotsman has revealed how a Deaf patient was left isolated and unable to communicate for 12 days at a hospital in Scotland because of a failure to provide her with access to a sign language interpreter.
The patient repeatedly asked for an interpreter, but none was provided. Following a complaint, her case has been examined by Scotland’s public services watchdog, who ruled that NHS Tayside failed to adhere to the board’s informed consent policy and found that the failure to obtain a sign language interpreter for the patient was “unacceptable”.
Extract:
The female patient who had been admitted to Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital for surgery to have her appendix removed had a very limited lip reading ability and did not have a good understanding of written English.
And it was “impossible to say” with any certainty whether the deaf patient had given informed consent for the surgery,
Jim Martin, the Scottish public services ombudsman, has ruled that NHS Tayside failed to adhere to the board’s informed consent policy and found that the failure to obtain a sign language interpreter for the patient was “unacceptable”.
He states in his report that a complaint had been raised on behalf of the patient, known as Ms A, that the board failed to provide a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter during her 12-day stay at Ninewells where she had been admitted for surgery to remove her appendix.
Ms A was a BSL user with very limited lip-reading ability. She did not use verbal communication and did not have a good understanding of written English.
Mr Martin states: “Although hospital staff took steps to try to communicate with Ms A, at no point did they provide an interpreter. This was despite Ms A repeatedly pointing to a poster on the wall, which was for interpreter services, and handing staff a BSL interpreter’s card on two separate occasions.”
He continues: “In the course of my investigation I took independent advice from my equality and diversity adviser and a medical adviser. The equality adviser said that staff had not taken reasonable and appropriate steps to obtain a BSL interpreter for Ms A in line with their legal duty to do so under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010. She said that once they had been alerted to Ms A’s need for a BSL interpreter, a clear plan should have been drawn up to try to coordinate the availability of doctors and others communicating with Ms A and a BSL interpreter, sufficiently trained to be able to communicate complex medical issues.”
To read the full article, go to: http://www.scotsman.com/news/health/deaf-patient-denied-interpreter-by-dundee-hospital-1-2862772
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wix4ever
March 28, 2013
This is typical of the NHS here in Scotland. Yes, we get free prescriptions but the quid pro quo is we have to live with outrageous cost-cutting by the NHS in other respects. Another example that’s come to light recently is that waiting times for cancer treatment in Scotland are far longer compared with waiting times in England.
bozothewondernerd
March 29, 2013
Critical part of the above (IMV) is, “… sufficiently trained to be able to communicate complex medical issues …” – dragging in someone with Level 1 would NOT be sufficient response.
cherry
March 29, 2013
I’m in London so not familiar with Scotland’s Health Services. What stood out here is the evidence was lacking of what is true informed consent if information had not been communicated in preferred first language which is clearly identified as BSL and even having provided a card for an interpreter. In service provision there is no acceptable excuse when there now is access to even remote BSL and Speech to Text and with access to the technology to make this possible in the ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ and the no decision about me without me’ then improved quality access to personalised preferred communication support for anyone who requires communication assistance to ensure informed consent is exactly whats needed to ensure informed consent is fully understood.
In Scotland I believe there is an organisation called Deaf Connections would it be this organisation that could be approached to champion this for you?
Tomato Lichy (@TomatoLichy)
March 29, 2013
Absolutely disgusting. She made her needs crystal clear, showed them an interpreting services poster and gave them an interpreter’s card TWICE. (How many deafs here actually carry interpreter’s cards with them?) But the hospital ignored all that and operated on her WITHOUT her consent. The same thing could happen to any of us.
wix4ever
March 29, 2013
Hi Cherry. Deaf Connections operate in the Glasgow area. Ninewells Hospital is in Dundee, where services for the deaf are provided by two charities – Deaf Action and Tayside Deaf Association who merged in 2010. I see no reason to blame anyone other than the NHS for this incident. But it would be good to hear a view from one or both of these two charities.
cherry
March 30, 2013
yes definitely something worth following up those charities get them involved in NHS on what quality access awareness really means eh! I did see on the deaf connections web they are having events http://www.deafconnections.co.uk/Latest/equalities-in-health-bsl.html so that could be something Deaf Action could be doing too get both these charities to join forces on this. i just looked at the DeafAction web and it does say they have a project Edinburgh & Lothian Deaf Health Project?
Here in London have some way to go too for sure as there are pockets of good practice in social and health care but pockets are not good enough! Advocacy is much needed to just keep quoting and reminding the NHS of their own mantra which is ‘no decision about me with out me ‘and ‘no one size fits all’ this is personalisation and choice, NHS has this in its own agenda so has to move towards this.
Lesley
April 9, 2013
Tayside Deaf Forum has been campaigning hard on this issue for a couple of years, including ongoing meetings with NHS staff, picketing with placards, loads of publicity in the local newspaper etc. And guess what? No change! Staff on the wards and at GP surgeries are still lacking in Deaf awareness and management don’t have it at the top of their priority list. And you wonder why people end up suing the NHS …
Deaf Links
April 22, 2013
It is great to read the positive support in the comments above for the Tayside patient who endured diabolical treatment in terms of equal access at the hand of NHS Tayside.
Deaf Links Advocacy Service supported this patient to make the complaint and took it to the Ombudsman when NHS Tayside failed to respond within their policy timescales. We are delighted the complaint was upheld in its entirety and hope NHS Tayside fully implement the recommendations set down by the Ombudsman. The Advocacy Service is constantly busy with instances where deaf people in Tayside have been let down by NHS Tayside in terms of equal access and regularly supports Tayside Deaf Forum (the campaigning arm of the Tayside Deaf Community) in meetings with NHS Tayside to push for changes to be made.
Deaf Links is the Tayside organisation set up by deaf people and led by deaf people. It provides service-user identified empowering services to support local deaf and deafblind people to become equal citizens. We aim to ensure deaf people are given equal access and full information to increase their knowledge base and enable them to make informed choices and decisions in everything that affects their life.
Local deaf people set up Deaf Links in 2009 and Tayside Deaf Hub in 2011 because they were fed up with the traditional services which they felt were patronising, paternalistic, controlling and keeping them in the dark with regards to making their own decisions and choices, and having the knowledge and information to do this.
There is a lot of work to be done to achieve equality in real terms for deaf people, but deaf people in Tayside, led by the local Deaf Community have been brave enough to break free from the traditional model of ‘deaf services’ and set up what they know is needed themselves. There will be many battles ahead of us in order to achieve our goal, but we are fired up and motivated to work towards this.
In response to Wix4ever, just to clarify, Tayside Association for the Deaf (TAD) was the ‘traditional deaf service provider’ in Tayside and the one the Deaf Community broke away from. TAD merged with Deaf Action in 2010 so no longer exists as an organisation. Deaf Action took over the ‘traditional’ service provision previously provided by TAD.
As Cherry rightly states, Deaf Connections is a Glasgow based organisation, so do not provide services in the Tayside Area.
Deaf Links, Tayside Deaf Forum and Dundee Deaf Sports and Social Club are working hard to change things for the better for Deaf, hard of hearing, deafened and deafblind people in Tayside. Being deaf-led means that the issues tackled are real to the local deaf community and the solutions offered to service providers to promote equality and equal access will work because they have been identified by deaf people themselves.