The deaf health charity SignHealth has said they are “very concerned” about the future of BSL Health Access, with NHS England only currently funding the service up until the end of March.
The 24/7 remote interpreting provision, which launched this time this year, aims to “facilitate communication in health-related situations” for Deaf people – including with GPs, dentists, NHS hospitals and “any health-care related appointments”.
BSL Health Access was first supported with up to £800,000 of funding from SignHealth’s reserves, before NHS England agreed to cover running costs from December to March 2021.
However, the charity has said that there is “no clarity” on how British Sign Language (BSL) signers will be able to access health services from April, with a NHS review of BSL provision “not yet complete”.
James Watson-O’Neill, SignHealth’s chief executive, said: “Deaf people must be able to access healthcare, whether to visit their GP, have a scan during pregnancy, be treated in intensive care for Coronavirus or attend a vaccine appointment.
“SignHealth cannot afford to step in again and fund access to interpreters that Deaf people have a right to expect to be provided by the NHS.”
The call comes as BSL Health Access celebrates its one-year anniversary, with more than 25,000 conversations interpreted through the service.
The data released by SignHealth also revealed that BSL Health Access has been used every day since it first launched, with the busiest days seeing more than 400 conversations take place.
Over 60% of discussions were with GPs, while 18% took place in hospitals.
The Limping Chicken has contacted NHS England for comment.
Photo: SignHealth.
By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a mildly deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He wears bilateral hearing aids and can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.
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Christopher Wyer
March 11, 2021
Did SignHealth have a contingency plan in place? As NHS England were non-committal on long term funding from the start – the contingency plan should have been put in place in order to raise funds to keep the vital service running. Did they do a fiscal risk assessment? It is a real shame as clearly many Deaf people benefited from it.