Accessible information, communication and interpretation

Supporting accessible information and communication

Please tell us if you need additional communication support relating to a disability or sensory loss / impairment. This will allow us to highlight your additional needs on your patient record and provide you with the support you or someone you care for need, when using one or more of our services.

We are able to provide:

• communication support, for example providing a British Sign Language (BSL) or other language interpreter for a hospital appointment 
• information in different formats, such as large print, Braille, easy read, British Sign Language (BSL) or audio

Please let any of the following people know: 

• someone from the appointments team when you are booking an appointment with us (your patient letter will have contact details)
• a member of staff when you arrive at a clinic or the Emergency Department/Urgent Treatment Centre
• the receptionist or nursing staff when you visit the hospital 

Once you have told us exactly what your needs are and what we need to do to support you, an alert will be placed on your electronic patient record which will appear each time a member of staff opens your records, this will enable us to meet your needs.

If you have any questions, please contact the Patient Experience Team by emailing whh.patient.experience@nhs.net

The Accessible Information Standard (AIS)

The standard requires all providers of adult social care and health services to provide additional communication support for patients with disabilities or sensory loss or impairment. This requirement also covers parents and/or carers who have a communication or information need related to a disability, impairment or sensory loss. 

AIS is designed to ensure patients, service users and their carers and parents have access to information that they can easily understand and are given any communication support they need.

As part of the standard we must do five things:

1. Ask our patients or service users if they have any information or communication needs, and find out how to meet their needs.
2. Record those needs clearly on the patient’s electronic or paper records.
3. Highlight the communication needs in a visible way so that other staff are aware and are prompted to take action.
4. Share information about the patient’s communication needs with other NHS and adult social care providers, when they have consent or permission to do so.
5. Act to make sure that our patients get information in an accessible way and communication support if they need it.

Using 999 with speech or hearing impairment

Services are available to support patients / carers with communication difficulties to access the emergency services, including in a health emergency situation when someone’s life may be at risk.

Two of the most simple ways to do this is via the Emergency SMS or the Relay UK assistant services:

●      To use Emergency SMS - text the word 'register' to 999 to set up the service on any mobile phone or device or go to: www.emergencysms.net

●      To use Relay UK  - dial ‘18000’ through the Next Generation Text (NGT) app, or from any textphone now to get set up.

If you or a loved one has a communication difficulty, please don’t wait for an emergency situation before considering this – get prepared by setting up your access now, just in case.