The University of the West of England’s move to train up future NHS workers in sign language could help save lives, Mayor Dan Norris has claimed. More than 250 students have taken the course at UWE led by members of the deaf community at UWE Glenside campus in the last 12 months.
Ahead of Sign Language Week (which starts next Monday) Mayor Norris says that around 12 million people in the UK are deaf or hard of hearing and said he was concerned that “communication is not just a challenge; it's a barrier” for deaf locals navigating the NHS, particularly in crises, and when dealing with emergency services.
He pointed to a recent example in Derby, where paramedics were unable to tell a deaf woman that her husband had died. Eventually she learned of her husband's death via a video call to her employer.
The West’s directly elected Mayor checked out the courses and got training from Deaf awareness trainer Mark Gill, who is himself deaf and knows from personal experience the importance of NHS staff being able to communicate clearly with members of the deaf community.
He told Mr Norris: “When booking a doctor’s appointment, I still have to walk into the surgery to make the appointment due to the lack of accessibility of booking systems, which if you are unwell, is not ideal. Generally, no interpreter provision is made to ensure clear communication throughout the appointment, therefore adding to confusion and misdiagnosis.
"It is also not very time effective as I've had to ask the doctors to repeat themselves or write things down. This can sometimes lead to medication being prescribed incorrectly, which can be very dangerous.”
UWE's Bristol's British Sign Language (BSL) society organised the training after receiving grant funding from UWE's student union. Final year UWE Bristol paramedic student and President of the UWE BSL society, Daniel Hunt, says: “Working for the ambulance service, we often see people in very stressful situations and an important part of our job is effective communication and providing reassurance.
"As healthcare professionals, we really have an obligation to ensure we can communicate with the deaf community to offer them the same level of service that we offer to everyone.”
Dan Norris, whose West of England Mayoral Combined Authority is the regional body responsible for skills, says: “We need an NHS that fully accommodates the needs of deaf patients.
“These courses at UWE led by brilliant instructors like Mark are exactly the kind of courses we need to see scaled up and replicated nationwide to help deliver that change which will make a massive difference to the some 12 million deaf people in this country.
“Bravo to UWE’s British Sign Language society, and Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People, for delivering these vital courses training up student nurses, paramedics, midwives, radiographers, optometrists, physiotherapists, and more. They’re literally saving lives.”
Justin Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Bristol-based Centre for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (CfD), who are delivering the courses, added: “At CfD we have a vision of Bristol as a Deaf-friendly city, where communication is no longer a barrier for Deaf and hard of hearing people, and where everyone can feel part of the vibrant community that they live in today.
"This is why sessions such as our Deaf Awareness training is important so that more people develop an understanding of how to overcome communication barriers and to be able to adopt small changes in their workplace or service delivery, and within their communities, to make everything as inclusive as possible for Deaf and hard of hearing people.”
