Accessible GP services for people with sensory loss

Did you know around 300,000 people in Northern Ireland are living with a hearing loss and some 46,000 are living with sight difficulties?
New guidance has been launched today to help improve access to GP services for those living with a sensory loss.

New guidance has been launched today to help improve access to GP services for those living with a sensory loss across Northern Ireland.

The guidance provides a practical approach to improving access to services for people who are deaf, have a hearing loss and are blind or partially sighted.  It focuses primarily on accessing services at GP surgeries, but can equally be applied in other primary care settings such as community pharmacies, dental surgeries; optometry practices and community based services provided by local Health and Social Care Trusts.  

This new publication has been developed by Action on Hearing Loss NI and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) NI with the support of the Health and Social Care Board.  It has been produced following the findings and recommendations identified by Action on Hearing Loss NI, RNIB NI and the British Deaf Association in their research report ‘Is It My Turn Yet?’ (2009), which reflected the views and experiences of people with sensory loss in accessing GP services across the region.

Over 60 delegates attending the event including; GPs, practice managers, those with a sensory loss and health and social care professionals, listened to a range of speakers describe the difficulties that those with a sensory loss face when trying to access services.

Speaking at the event Gerard Heatley, a service user who is deafened, faced difficulties in accessing his local Out Of Hours GP service and worked with Belfast Health and Social Care Trust to resolve these.

Gerard says, “Like many other people with hearing loss, I couldn’t hear the buzzer on the intercom at the door of the surgery to even get in to the building, and I was worried what might happen in an emergency. The Trust agreed to give me a mobile phone number to text a message to let the staff know when I arrive so they can let me in. One small step for the surgery has been a giant leap for me in terms of my confidence in using the service.”

Explaining to delegates about her personal experience of being unable to read her own post, Margaret Mann, a service user with sight loss said, "How would you feel if you had to ask your next door neighbour to read your mammogram screening results to you? Hopefully these guidelines being launched will address this issue and give blind and partially sighted people the same level of privacy as anyone else."

Launching the ‘Best Practice Guidance: Creating accessible primary care services for people with sensory loss’, Ian Clements, Chair of the Health and Social Care Board commented, “I have heard today from a number of people living with a sensory loss and their difficulties in accessing some health and social care services and the clear need for improvement.

“The priorities that people living with a sensory loss face when accessing services are issues such as appointment availability; physical access to buildings and the  availability of appropriate equipment and aids.  We hope that the information and advice in this new set of guidelines will provide GP practices with useful information and tips to do just that for patients with sensory loss, to ensure they have equal access to the services they require.

Attending the event Jackie White, NI Director of Action on Hearing loss said, “We hope that this practical guide will support staff in GP practices to improve access to their services for people with hearing loss. Simple steps like ensuring the induction loop system is working and that details of sign language interpreting services are known to frontline staff, can make the difference between someone leaving their GP fully informed, or not.”

David Galloway, Director of RNIB Northern Ireland added, "People who are blind and partially sighted often have problems with getting information and correspondence from their GP in a suitable format and often staff in GP practices are not aware of the simple changes that they can make to better meet the needs of patients with sight loss. The guidance launched today provides straightforward advice on how to provide a good quality service to people with a sensory disability. RNIB is committed to helping GPs and other health care professionals understand the needs of people with sight loss and I would urge GPs to make sure that their Practice adopts the approaches recommended within this new guidance.”

A copy of the guidance is available to view or download from the Health and Social Care Board website at: www.hscboard.hscni.net/publications/2014

Last updated 9 years 4 months ago