"Patient Care and Communication Barriers for Deaf People"

I contacted PALS at Barnsley Hospital to book an interpreter for my father, who is profoundly deaf. He arrived three weeks later at an outpatient clinic for a consolation only to find that there was no interpreter.

Whilst the consultant and nurse did their best to orally communication with my father, he contacted me during his appointment to say that he would be going for an operation and is scared and that there was no interpreter.

I became concerned and asked the nurse to contact me. She called me during the appointment and handed me over to the consultant who explained what he understood from my father and asked for my confirmation of this then proceeded to tell me what he had informed my father about his planned surgery. I text had to text my father and relay this information to him.

Whilst the staff in the outpatient department did their best to avoid confusion, the lack of provision of an interpreter and the way that information was relayed is not only against values of our NHS constitution but again the Equality Act too. It worries me that in this day and age my father cannot keep his privacy, autonomy or have accessible information.