Deaf patient slams hospital over lack of sign language staff
AHOSPITAL has been slammed after being accused of failing to provide a sign language interpreter to a deaf patient from Runcorn.
Lynda Crowther, 53, presented at Warrington Hospital emergency department after falling down stairs on the morning of Sunday, October 13, and after being checked went to reception to make an appointment.
Her daughter Stacey Harris told the Weekly News that she asked for an interpreter, which is standard procedure for someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, which is a legal requirement under the NHS’s Accessible Information Standard rules, only to be declined.
Stacey said the receptionist replied ‘she can’t’ and then mumbled.
When Mrs Crowther attended her appointment ‘in great pain’ due to a broken foot on Wednesday, October 16, she found that no interpreter had been provided, and then bumped into an interpreter she knows who revealed she had no appointments from 9.30am onwards and should have been booked.
Stacey forwarded a copy of her complaint to the hospital to the Weekly News.
In it, she said: “So you
● actually had an on-site interpreter, who could have helped my mother with her appointment and nothing.
“With this being said this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.
“Last year my mother ended up being admitted and wasn’t seen for a full week, she was told interpreters were booked, day after day.
“She had no idea what was going on, one day she thought she had hepatitis, one day she thought she had liver failure, she was taken off her stroke medication and her aspirin but wasn’t informed why.
“During this week I was worried sick living in Scotland that I couldn’t be there for her, I had nurses telling me if I could travel down to interpret for her.
“This is unacceptable for a hospital who should have their patients as top priority.
“I had to sit on FaceTime until the doctor came round so I could find out what was happening.
“I want something done about this, it’s discrimination and disgusting.
“I will be reporting this.” The hospital has now apologised.
John Goodenough, Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust deputy chief nurse, said: “We would like to apologise to Mrs Crowther and her family for the distress that we have caused in failing to provide her with a BSL (British Sign Language) interpreter to support her appointments at our hospitals.
“We are currently investigating the complaint received from Mrs Crowther’s daughter in relation to the matter.
“We are passionate about equality, diversity and inclusiveness for all at our hospitals and to have let any hearing impaired patient or carer down in this way is unacceptable.
“The trust has a contract in place with our partners The Deafness Resource Centre that supports us 24-seven and it is very unfortunate that the process for arranging support for this patient were not followed on this occasion.
“We have taken the opportunity to share the process again as part of our daily safety briefings to prevent this from happening to anyone else.”