NHS Tayside 'Sorry' For Deaf Woman's Ordeal

A health board has apologised and agreed to improve practices after a deaf woman was not provided with a sign language interpreter during a six-day stay in hospital.

Sally Doering, 65, said she was unable to let staff know when she was in pain while in Perth Royal Infirmary (PRI) last year. NHS Tayside described her experience as unacceptable'' and has now entered into an agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to ensure all deaf patients have their communication needs met in future.

Mrs Doering, from Perthshire, said: I was taken into hospital suddenly and when I got there all my family and my advocacy worker asked for an interpreter to be provided so I could understand what was happening to me.

Even though they asked, no interpreter was provided, this meant that I did not know what was happening to me. I couldn't communicate with staff, I couldn't let anyone know when I was in pain. I couldn't even make choices of what food I wanted.

I didn't find out what had been wrong with me until I got home and someone was able to explain to me.''

The health board has since admitted it fell short'' of the high standards it expected but said it was determined to learn from the experience.

The EHRC, which took up Mrs Doering's case, said it was pleased the health board has agreed to change its practice and meet its legal duties going forward''.

It comes after Mrs Doering had earlier received an apology over a similar incident the year before.

Alastair Pringle, director of the EHRC in Scotland, said: This agreement is important because this is not the first time that NHS Tayside has failed to put reasonable adjustments in place to ensure deaf people have access to the support they require.

In 2012 Mrs Doering herself received an apology for a similar failure to provide a British sign language interpreter to her during an eight day hospital stay, and another deaf woman successfully complained to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman about the hospital's failure to provide a British sign language interpreter in 2013.

We hope that this agreement, which includes NHS Tayside setting out a number of actions they will take to improve their performance, will now resolve the issue.''

Nurse director Dr Margaret McGuire said: Mrs Doering's experience was unacceptable and fell far short of what I would expect. We failed to provide the appropriate compassionate care and communication to Mrs Doering during her stay in PRI.

I would like to reiterate our apology to her and also to her family for this poor experience and, in particular, for not providing a British Sign Language interpreter during her stay in hospital.

NHS Tayside recognises the importance of getting the right systems and processes in place for our deaf community and we will work hard to improve these.

We are committed to working collaboratively with the EHRC and, as part of the formal legal agreement we have entered into, we are implementing a detailed improvement plan for interpretation and translation services.''

She said the plan included making sure all staff were aware of their legal duties under the Equality Act, with additional training being delivered.

In Mrs Doering's case we fell short of the high standards of person-centred care that we expect from all members of staff but we are determined to learn from this and ensure that we identify and meet individual needs every time,'' she added.