GP surgery care when you're Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing

Healthwatch Bucks ran a survey and focus groups on D/deaf and hard of hearing people’s experiences of GP surgeries.  They spoke to 90 people.

People want to communicate using their first language wherever possible, including when this is British Sign Language (BSL). Few people knew they could ask for their GP records to be ‘flagged’ with their communication needs. Many people were very frustrated by having to remind people inside the surgery (and then in secondary care if they were referred) that they had a degree of hearing loss.

Few Deaf people had experience of BSL interpreters in a GP surgery because they said it took too long to book, and/or Sign Live or similar apps were not generally used. Most of these would prefer to have a BSL interpreter present at an appointment.

Many people who are hard of hearing or Deaf find making appointments by phone or receiving speech calls from GP surgeries difficult. Remote phone consultations by phone were particularly unpopular.

People who were able to communicate with their GP surgeries by text, and whose surgeries responded in a timely way, found communication between appointments straightforward.

While booking appointments online was an option for some, not everyone could or knew how to do this. People also told us that this was not suitable for urgent, same day appointments which could only be obtained by phone.

 Half of the people we spoke to were happy with the use of speech at an appointment, as many could lip read or took someone to help them. However, several wanted to know why technology such as hearing loops or apps such as Sign Live could not be routinely offered.

While several people asked family members, friends and/or social workers to help them book appointments and/or communicate with medical staff, some felt that this did not allow them to keep aspects of their medical history private.

Some people told us that not being able to communicate in a way that suited them left them confused, frustrated, ill-informed or they felt the experience affected their self-esteem in a negative way.

Many people felt surgery staff were not deaf aware. People said many members of staff did not give them enough time to communicate. Staff might obscure their mouths with masks, sit so they were backlit or have their face pointed away from the patient so the latter could not lip read.

The report recommends that the local ICB encourages local GP surgeries to sign up to the Healthwatch Bucks Deaf and Hearing Loss GP charter.