An NHS consultant, whose daughter is deaf, has co-written an article calling for more interpreters to be made available for deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users.
Dr Andrew Alexander, who works at Bath’s Royal United Hospital, has co-written an article in leading medical journal The Lancet called ‘Deafness might damage your health.” The article looks at communication between the patient and the doctor.
In an article called Deaf people get a raw deal on the NHS, This is Bath website quotes Dr Alexander as saying:
“Relying on lip-reading is inadequate as lip-readers understand only part of a conversation and use guesswork to fill the gaps. Written notes are unsatisfactory too, as many deaf people have often had poor quality education and may have a lower than average literacy. A qualified interpreter should always be present in a consultation between a clinician and a deaf patient who uses BSL to enable better two-way communication.”
Read the full article here: http://www.thisisbath.co.uk/Deaf-people-raw-deal-NHS-ndash-medic/story-15589971-detail/story.html
uk deaf news british
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saranga
March 22, 2012
Wouldn’t a more accurate title tot he article be ‘Medical staff who can’t communicate might damage your health’ rather than ‘deafness might damage your health’?
I mean, surely the problem is that Doctors can’t communciate, not the Deafness itself?
Sam
March 22, 2012
Article ‘Deafness might damage your health’ even got BSL version video and you can even watch it without register (you need register read text version).
That strange but good.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61670-X/fulltext
maggisummerhill
May 16, 2012
There definitely is a problem. I have recently been having a lot of doctors appointments in relation to having surgery. At the very last appointment there was a nurse taking notes to back up my lipreading. Thankfully my husband was there as well; I say thankfully, because I thought I had understood everything and so did everyone else and it was only a chance remark to my husband that uncovered I had completely misunderstood when the surgery would take place. Trouble is, I don’t sign and I don’t really see how misunderstandings can be avoided unless we get a reliable voice to text system like they have in America.