Deaf News: ‘Rapid review’ of NHS England’s British Sign Language provision published

Integrated care systems (ICS), which provide joined-up health and care support across local areas from organisations such as councils and the NHS, should set up a “lived experience panel” to review existing British Sign Language (BSL) services – according to an independent review of NHS England’s national BSL provision.

The eight-week “rapid review”, conducted by North East Commissioning Support (NECS) and published on Monday, contained three stages, looking at the challenges faced by BSL users, how BSL interpretation can deal with health inequalities, and recommendations as to the most effective approach to commissioning which will “deliver better health outcomes for BSL users”.

Their recommendation on the lived experience panel reads: “[This panel will] support a review of existing BSL services, advocacy arrangements and to undertake an initial Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) to consider the impact of COVID-19 on BSL users in their system.

“The lived experience panel should play a role in the ongoing review and monitoring of improved local BSL provision and undertake future EIA reviews.”

Other recommendations listed by the NECS – of which there are 17 in total – include creating a plan to “promote and increase awareness across clinicians, managers and administrators” and setting up a BSL advocacy support service, which will “address operational and quality issues on behalf of BSL users”.

After hearing from BSL users that emergency services are not equipped with Video Relay Services (VRS), the NECS also listed a single phone number for “emergency/out of hours BSL interpreting services” as one of the key areas “to be considered”.

The suggestion is expanded upon in the eighth recommendation of the report, with the authors writing: “The specific recommendations are that an enhanced national service is developed for urgent BSL support across England within NHS 111. This would include the BSL interpreter input to the Clinical Assessment Service and provide urgent and emergency BSL support.”

Recommendations were also given to NHS England, who were advised to create a “best practice guide” to detail the issues faced by BSL users and suggest a co-ordinated ICS approach which provides a “single point of access and accountability” for BSL service users.

Commenting on the rapid review, SignHealth’s chief executive James Watson-O’Neill said “[It] has clearly highlighted the issues deaf people are experiencing accessing healthcare through the NHS. Research carried out by SignHealth in 2014 (Sick of It report) uncovered the dramatic health inequality experienced by deaf people in the UK.

“Health economists at the University of East Anglia estimate that deaf people’s misdiagnosis and poor treatment is costing the NHS an additional £30m a year.

“It is hoped that this review, its recommendations and advocacy support (in BSL alongside a lived experience panel in each ICS), will go some way towards initiating long term, significant change in the health system. Change that improves how Deaf people access health services in the future.”

A BSL version of the report, along with SignHealth’s statement, can be found on the charity’s website.

People can also request access to the full, written report on the FutureNHS Collaboration Platform. The Limping Chicken submitted an application to view the review, but was rejected because an NHS email address was not provided.

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is a Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.