North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT), Bristol Sight Loss Council (BSLC), Bristol’s Centre for Deaf People / Bristol Deaf Health Partnership and Bristol Disability Equality Forum have all come together to improve the experience of those accessing healthcare with additional communication needs.
This month, during Disability History Month, we are running an Accessible Information Standards (AIS) Campaign to share with all staff about the importance and practical steps of the standard. This standard ensures patients with a disability, impairment or sensory loss receive information in the way they need and communication support. The campaign will highlight the steps staff can take to support patients, the training on offer and information on how to meet patients’ needs.
Going to hospital can be daunting for anyone but for those with sight loss, who are Deaf or hard of hearing or have a disability, the experience can be very challenging, from the barriers in communication prior to a visit, to the potential challenges once at hospital. We want to ensure better accessibility, which in turn improves healthcare, patient experience and outcomes.
Together with our patient partners we have hosted in person training sessions, created e-learning lessons, improved processes, created an AIS Steering Group and action plan and will continue to champion this work.
Heather Armstrong, a volunteer for BSLC commented about working together: “Working in partnership with NBT is starting to produce meaningful results. This includes some evidence of improved experience from blind and partially sighted people, as well as increased confidence of staff and volunteers in supporting them. This demonstrates the power of involvement of people with lived experience right from the start and throughout the process of change. BSLC congratulates NBT on welcoming and implementing such involvement.”
Juliette Hughes, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer at North Bristol Trust comments: “We are very grateful to all the patient representatives who are helping us to ensure North Bristol Trust is accessible to all. We want all patients to have a good experience and fair access regardless of disability, sensory loss or impairment. We are committed to meeting the accessible information standards and have already made progress. We recognise we still have work to do and are determined to do this with our patient partners.”
Read more about our work with Bristol Sight Loss Council and its national Make Health Accessible campaign.
Find out more about Bristol’s Centre for Deaf People or Bristol Disability Equality Forum.