Eastbourne Listening Tour 2022 - Engaging with protected characteristic groups
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Healthwatch East Sussex engaged with people with protected characteristics as part of its 2022 Listening Tour. They spoke to 35 people who had sight or hearing impairments, were asylum seekers or were LGBTQ+.
Blind people said that services weren’t always physically accessible, including a lack of handrails and the ophthalmology department moving to a hospital further away.
There is digital exclusion for people with disabilities e.g. telephone queues aren’t accessible for people with hearing impairments. A lot of people give up and are not going to appointments. This results in symptoms worsening and medical conditions going untreated.
People who use hearing aids are often unable to maintain them well themselves due to the complicated nature of the hardware which can compromise their ability to hear. There is disappointment that the NHS are not prepared to pay minimal costs for training their staff on working better with people with hearing needs.
The staff at hotels where asylum seekers are placed are supposed to call a designated GP surgery to register them. Asylum seekers say this has not been done for many people. Some individuals told Healthwatch that they didn’t know where their GP surgery was or how to get an appointment. Furthermore, some residents at these hotels commented that the staff had not been willing to call the GP to make an appointment on their behalf.
The location of services is often not within walking distance and asylum seekers and refugees do not have the financial means to pay for transport to those healthcare sites. This often results in them not attending medical appointments or paying for transport with the minimal funds they receive.
Most LGBTQ+ parents had had some form of positive experience, such as very good midwife, beneficial perinatal counselling, and some staff are compassionate. A key theme which was raised was that these individuals had to explain themselves; explain their sexual orientation, how to be referred to, questioning paternity leave etc. Several people explained that they feel uncomfortable because of assumptions which are made, such as needing to use birth control (even though it is completely unnecessary for some), the use of heteronormative language, questioning who the parent is.
The report contains recommendations based on the feedback given by each group and five overarching recommendations.