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'I was treated like I didn't matter': Deaf patients left without 'basic accessibility' in NHS and unable to communicate with doctors
10 June 2025, 13:16 | Updated: 11 June 2025, 11:44
A lack of sign-language interpreters or alternative communication methods in the NHS has led to 'dangerous' consequences as deaf patients are left unable to speak with health professionals.
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The needs of deaf patients are being "repeatedly ignored" as the NHS fail to provide British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters and communication devices.
Only 7% of BSL users who require an interpreter are given that requirement for NHS appointments, found the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and SignHealth.
Moona Mohammed, who requires BSL to communicate, told LBC she's faced numerous occasions where she was not given an interpreter in Barts Health NHS trust, London.
"I was treated like I didn’t matter," she said.
While Pip Lee was left in hospital for four days with no alternate method of communication.
Doctors failed to tell Ms Lee that she was being checked for a brain tumour - which she only found out via a post-appointment letter.
"It was utterly unbelievable"
Pip Lee, from Suffolk, who has lost hearing in both her ears, was left waiting for her appointment despite having a pager that was meant to vibrate.
She said staff laughed it off as "nobody knew how to use the pagers".
She was in an audiology department in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS trust, to check her changing tinnitus, when her doctor refused to remove his face-mask.
As Ms Lee relies on lip-reading, she could not hear anything he was saying.
After flagging this with other staff, he attempted to use an iPad to use the speech-to-text function, but the text it produced was nonsensical.
A nurse told Ms Lee the doctor decided she needed an MRI on her brain, but it was only when the post-appointment letter came she found out they were looking for a possible brain tumour.
"It's not about having all singing or dancing stuff. It's about basic accessibility," Ms Lee said.
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She added that, luckily, she was not diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Ms Lee was taken into hospital last year as an emergency inpatient and her hearing aids had run out of charge.
"I could not hear a word," she said.
"I was being pushed from department to department. I had no idea what they were doing."
She was in hospital with no method of communication. Ms Lee said staff spoke to her with face-masks on or mumbled despite her constantly reminding them she needed to lip-read.
It took staff four days to start writing her handwritten notes, detailing her care.
"It just makes you panicky. Of course, you're already nervous about being in hospital and you're constantly waiting for the next person's going to try and speak to you."
"It was utterly unbelievable," she said.
Ms Lee said she notified NHS staff her preferred method of communication was written notes and remote appointments where possible.
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS trust Associate Director of Patient Engagement and Experience, Sarah Higson said: “We are very sorry to hear of the experience Pip has shared about her communications needs not being met whilst in our care.
“We take matters like this very seriously and we look to support every patient with any communication needs they may have when they are with us.
“We have been formalising a process to record the communication needs of our patients to make sure we make reasonable adjustments for them. We recognise that these processes must continue to be shared widely with all our teams so they can offer the relevant support.
"We urge our patients to continue to make us aware of their communication needs while we raise awareness, and support training amongst our staff."
"Exhausting, isolating, and deeply unfair"
Ms Mohammed waited for two hours for a long-awaited medical appointment after the doctor called her name repeatedly. They marked her as "did not attend" and asked her to go home.
"When I received a serious diagnosis, instead of being supported, I was made to feel less than human. I was forced to navigate the system alone, trying to make sense of complex medical information in a language that is not my first," she said.
"This is not just a personal frustration, it’s a systemic failure."
She demanded to be seen, and was eventually given an appointment without an interpreter. She had to rely on written English, which she said leaves her unable to ask questions and "vulnerable to miscommunication".
"I could sense the doctor’s frustration, but what about mine? I was confused, distressed, and completely alone in that room. My access needs were not met. My language was not respected," she said.
She continued: "Phone calls from hospitals are another nightmare. I can’t answer them. But rather than using accessible methods of communication, they just assume I don’t need the appointment anymore and I’m left waiting again.
Ms Mohammad had a similar issue with phone calls. She is unable to answer them, and rather than using an accessible method of communication, they assume she doesn't need the appointment.
"It’s exhausting, isolating, and deeply unfair," she added.
A spokesperson for Barts Health NHS trust said: “We are very sorry this patient’s experience did not meet our usual high standards, but we are unable to investigate what happened in this case without more information.
"We routinely arrange British Sign Language interpretation for over 700 patients every year, either face-to-face or through the SignLive 24/7 video service, and also have access to other non-verbal communication experts such as deafblind interpreters."
"Failure" of NHS services
47% give up trying to make a healthcare appointment, while 44% find lack of communication assistant resulted in them not getting the follow-up care they need.
Over a quarter of deaf people surveyed avoided calling an ambulance in an emergency situation because they didn't think the NHS would be able to meet their communication needs.
This comes after deaf TikTok star Imogen Nunn, 25, took her own life after being "failed" by mental health services.
Following the conclusion of Miss Nunn’s inquest on May 23 at West Sussex Coroners Court, her mother said she hopes “vital lessons” can be learned from her daughter’s death.
Senior coroner Penelope Schofield said mental health services failed to review her care plan after she tried to kill herself in October 2022.
The coroner underlined a backdrop of "systemic challenges" with the number of BSL interpreters across various UK industries and indicated she would be writing to the government about this.
Louise Nunn said: “We welcome the coroner’s findings, and hope that the agencies concerned can learn vital lessons from what happened to Immy to ensure that no other family has to endure the pain that we have endured."
Robert Geaney, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Royal National Institute for Deaf People, said that often deaf people are forced to take a friend or family member to health appointments with them to sign, but he urged that "robbed them of their dignity, their privacy, their rights to go through healthcare in exactly the same way that most of us can take for granted".
Mr Geaney said: "We are calling on the Department of Health to come forward with a transformation plan to change accessible healthcare.
"The central piece of NHS guidance is called the Accessible Information Standard.
"This guidance means that everybody should be able to register their communication preferences with their GP, their GP should then have that flagged on their patient record, and as they move around the healthcare system, their needs should be met.
"It's absolutely wonderful in practice. It's not being delivered."
As well as the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), deaf people's needs are protected under the Equality Act (2010) and the BSL Act (2022).
Under the Equality Act (2010), health and social care organisations must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled people are not disadvantaged. This includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language interpreters to support deaf patients.
Deaf patients in the NHS can request a BSL interpreter, a text-to-speech services, and video relay services (a call where the Deaf person signs and the interpreter translates into spoken English). The NHS offers email and online booking also.
NHS England are rolling out a Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag which enables the recording of key information about a patient and their adjustment needs, to ensure support can be tailored appropriately. Guidance and free training on the Flag is available for health and social care staff.
Since 2016, all National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the AIS, which details the recommended approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of patients and carers with a disability, impairment or sensory loss, including deaf people, including patients using British Sign Language (BSL).
Mr Geaney argued that a lot of issues lie with NHS IT and the systems that support and keep record of deaf patient's communication needs are underfunded.
Ms Mohammed said: "Deaf people use a language - BSL - that is rich, visual, and entirely separate from English. Not all Deaf people are fluent in written English, especially if they’ve experienced language deprivation.
"This must be understood and taken seriously across the NHS and beyond. Staff need proper Deaf awareness training. They need to know what to do when a Deaf patient arrives.
"Many don’t realise that BSL interpreters are available through language service providers contracted by local language providers. Access to spoken language interpreters is usually easier and that in itself is a form of inequality."
She added "Deaf people are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for equal treatment. Equal access. Equal respect."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “These cases are shocking and unacceptable – all NHS services have a legal duty to ensure that services are as accessible to disabled people, including deaf people, as they are for everybody else.
“NHS services are also expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard so patients can fully understand everything they need to about their treatment and care.”
NHS England has been undertaking a review of the AIS. A self-assessment framework has been developed to support providers of NHS and social care services to measure their performance against the AIS and develop improvement action plans to address gaps in implementation.
A revised AIS will be published by NHS England in due course. The current AIS remains in force and therefore there should not be a gap in provision for people using services.
NHS England said it remains committed to meeting its responsibilities with the AIS and will continue to support NHS commissioners and providers to ensure the standard is implemented in a meaningful and consistent way.
