Julie Wixley: My recent hospital experience

At the end of November, I attended my local hospital for an outpatients appointment.

When I arrived I joined the queue for the reception desk and on arrival at the desk I lowered my mask and informed them that I am Deaf.

The receptionist tried to speak to me but she had her mask on and as I had no idea what she was saying, so I gave up and showed her my appointment letter.

She then typed something and spoke into a little microphone. I reminded her that I’m Deaf and can’t hear her. I said that if she lowered her mask I could lip read her. At this point she apologised, removed her mask and told me to go to the blue area.

I thanked her, took my letter and went to the waiting area where there were about six other people waiting. One by one they all went in until I was the last one left.

Other people had sat down and I noticed that they had been seen before me and I was still waiting. The nurse kept walking past me whilst I was sitting there wondering what was going on.

In the end I got up and explained to the nurse that I am Deaf and that my appointment was at 2.30 and that I was still waiting and showed her my letter. She then advised me that she had called my name twice but I obviously hadn’t heard her because I’m Deaf! I was shocked that she had no idea that I was Deaf.

When I have attended hospital appointments before, I have had an interpreter sitting next to me they would listen out for my name and let me know which always put me at ease. However, on this occasion there was no interpreter there.

This created a very stressful situation which I was really quite angry about and which brought on a red rash all over my neck. I felt really angry but didn’t say anything and followed her into another room.

She had taken her mask off and asked me if I was happy to lipread or for them to write things down for me to which my response was a firm no!

She also said that she could fingerspell so offered to fingerspell everything for me which again was not acceptable.

I explained to her that I did not want to lipread or have things written down for me, what I needed was an interpreter and I wouldn’t accept anything else.

The nurse suggested bringing in a screen so that I could use a remote interpreter and I agreed to give it a go but to be honest at this point I’d really had enough!

She brought in a screen and then realized she had nowhere to put it as there wasn’t a table or anything so ended up putting it on the bed so it was leaning and moving about. This really wasn’t very professional and I felt they should be prepared for the eventuality of a Deaf person requiring this service.

So, I waited for ages before an interpreter finally came onto the screen and then when they started interpreting the screen kept freezing which was no good at all. I told the nurse that it wasn’t working and that it was rubbish and she looked a little shocked and panicky.

At this point I was feeling really emotional as I’d had enough and I started to cry. I decided to FaceTime my daughter and I explained to her through lots of tears what had happened. The nurse then had a conversation with my daughter although I had no idea what they were saying.

My daughter then explained to me that she had asked to speak to the manager and she tried to get me to calm down. I refused and explained that this was the second time it had happened as recently I had undergone an endoscopy which meant I had to have a camera down my throat and there was no interpreter then either! On that occasion I had panicked and had to FaceTime my daughter then as well. Why should I have to do this?

The manager arrived and was very apologetic and said that they weren’t aware. My daughter and I explained that this is a constant problem and tried to explain how I felt whilst in the waiting room and how embarrassing and difficult the situation is for a Deaf person.

I don’t want to have to FaceTime my daughter, I want to be independent and equal. I said that the hospitals often aren’t aware and they need to do something about it. My blood was boiling at this point and my daughter was trying to get me to calm down but I couldn’t. This was the culmination of so many things that had happened in the past and had been building up for a while and is just not acceptable.

The nurse then informed me that she had got the screen working in another room and asked if I wanted to try it again to which I agreed. The manager apologised for the situation and to my relief everything was working well.

When my appointment had finished the manager came to see me to clarify that I would need an interpreter for any future appointments. I explained that I need an interpreter with me as I can’t hear my name called and can’t understand the information being said to me. I stressed that what had happened to me was embarrassing as I was sitting there with no clue as to what was going on with people looking at me as if I’m stupid and I didn’t want that to happen again.

One of the issues is that I have an invisible disability. If a person came to an appointment in a wheelchair you can see that they need help which I would agree with. But you can’t see my disability. You look at me and think I look ‘normal’ but I’m Deaf and I need help too! She assured me that in future I would have an interpreter and my response was that I really hoped that would be the case.

It took me a while to calm down as it had been a very emotional, frustrating, stressful and upsetting situation. It had really made my blood boil and I was upset thinking about all the other Deaf people that had had to face the same situation and how they must have felt.

This situation has to change! It is not acceptable for a Deaf person to be expected to attend an appointment without an interpreter. This is discrimination! We have a right to an interpreter and it is the responsibility of the hospital to provide one. I sincerely hope this does not happen again.

Julie says: “I work as a senior carer with Deaf adults. I have worked in care for over 20 years. I am profoundly Deaf and went to Doncaster school. My husband is hard of hearing. I have two daughters who are both hearing and we live in Warwickshire.”