21 Mar People with deafness and hearing loss still don’t enjoy full access to healthcare
A new report by charity Action on Hearing Loss entitled Good Practice? has found that people with deafness and hearing loss still don’t enjoy equality of access to healthcare.
Despite the Accessible Information Standard having come into effect in August 2016, which legally requires all providers of NHS care and publicly funded adult social care to record and meet the communication needs of people with disabilities and sensory loss, the report has found that many GP surgeries are still falling short. The report found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of people who are deaf or have hearing loss still feel unclear about their health advice after their GP appointment, at least some of the time.
A key area of concern for patients with deafness and hearing loss was booking urgent same-day appointments, with more than one-third of survey respondents having experienced difficulties. Of these, one in five (19%) survey respondents said they had experienced difficulties because they were offered a same-day phone appointment by their GP surgery, even though they cannot use the phone.
