Enter and view: Emergency Department Royal Free Hospital, Barnet
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Healthwatch Barnet and Healthwatch Camden conducted an announced Enter and View visit to the Emergency Department in the Royal Free Hospital. The visit aimed to evaluate access for those with communication impairments to emergency departments. The team engaged with staff members, service users and observed the working practice.
The visit highlighted a lack of policy and procedure for supporting patients with sensory impairments. The team observed that the reception area was poorly lit and information displayed was not printed clearly. They also observed that signage across the hospital was not clear. The provider does not have an in-house communications team but reported that they had access to an interpreter within the hour of requesting one. There was some concern about patients whose first language is not English who require access to a BSL interpreter as there is no formal procedure for such cases. Staff reported that as they did not have a communications toolkit available in reception, they would rely on using the internet. There was access to large print information for patients when required. Staff reported that they received training several years prior but there is no formal deaf/disability training. It was noted that patients who require support usually bring their carers or relatives with them.
The report made 7 recommendations to the provider. These included improved monitoring of patients who attend with sensory impairments, to provide visual and hearing impairment training to all staff members annually, to provide a communications handbook for reception staff, consider the use of video interpreting, to reduce the reliance on carers and relatives as informal interpreters, for the hospital to develop policies and procedures for supporting people with sensory impairments and for a pager system to be implemented in reception for patients presenting at A&E with sensory impairments.
The service provider responded to the report and recommendations stating that they will consider implementing some of the recommendations and disagreeing with others.