Experiences of the Accessible Information Standards in Health and Care
Download (PDF 391.61 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Stockton-on-Tees undertook a survey on compliance with the Accessible Information Standard to support Healthwatch England’s campaign. They heard from 24 people.
Receiving an appropriate level of support from family, carers, and support staff to access and understand information, and to communicate with health and care services is important for those people that are covered by the AIS.
People who are covered by the AIS experience disadvantage in accessing health and care information when needed, and this has had an impact on the quality of care that they received.
People who are covered by the AIS have been refused a request for support to understand health care information when they have asked, and at times they’ve not been provided with health care information that they could understand or access.
Those who are covered by the AIS are more likely to experience difficulties in accessing health and care services - particularly GP services and dentists, because of communication problems.
People who are covered by the AIS reported that the quality of communication from health and care services has got slightly worse since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. People who aren’t covered by the AIS have reported that communication has stayed the same.
The report contains four recommendations.