ePolitix.com - Forum Brief: NHS services for the visually impaired

More than a third of visually impaired people feel that their GP is not fully aware of their needs, a report from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has found.

The study also concluded that although many blind and partially sighted people are happy with the services of their GP, there are significant problems and areas in need of improvement.

Following the launch of the report, Guide Dogs has launched a campaign aimed at providing "access for all" to NHS services.

Tom Pey, Guide Dogs’ director of policy, said: "There are around 1.7 million blind and partially sighted people in the UK; 90 per cent of these are over 60.

"As demographic trends indicate that the elderly population is set to rise in the next couple of decades, the ability of the NHS to respond to the needs of visually impaired people is of paramount importance.

"Guide Dogs’ report has highlighted specific areas in need of improvement. Many of these, such as assisting someone to a seat and into the surgery and improving signage around the building could easily be resolved at no great expense.

"Well trained staff, accessible information and a safe building will be of clear benefit to both patients and staff."

A spokesman for the Shaw Trust said: "The Shaw Trust welcomes the Guide Dogs for the Blind NHS campaign.

"This year Shaw Trust will work with 35,000 disabled and disadvantaged people with their training and job search. We expect to find work for 9000 clients; an appreciable number of our candidates for work are visually impaired people.

"This campaign to promote access to NHS services for people using guide dogs will boost awareness of the barriers encountered by visually impaired people.

"Making reasonable adjustments and training for staff to accommodate visually impaired patients, will compliment the work of the Shaw Trust who are placing into work and supporting people with their jobs in the health care sector."

Matt Townsend, public affairs officer said: "Access to NHS services is of course essential to us all and something many people take for granted. For those with significant impairments (not just the deaf and blind but also individuals with physical disabilities and disorders such as ASD), it is vital. Access is however not just about ramps for wheelchairs, wider doorways or braille signs, important thought those things undoubtedly are. It is also about the availability of trained staff who can provide additional support for people who might experience difficulty understanding directions or who may, if they have autism for example, struggle to cope with the noise and volume of people around them - as many of us know from our own experience, hospitals are not always the easiest of places to negotiate!

"In addition, by October all organisations that service the public will need to ensure they comply with the access provisions of the DDA - that includes the public sector not just businesses. If the government is going to demand, (and rightly so), these standards of the private and voluntary sectors, then public bodies such as the NHS should surely lead the way. It is to be hoped that following the Guide Dogs report and House of Commons campaign launch, the NHS will take action on those areas identified where inadequate access to services remains a real problem."

Steve Winyard, RNIB’s head of public policy said “we welcome the recommendations contained in GDBA’s NHS services report, which are based on the experiences of a large sample of blind and partially sighted people in accessing NHS services. We look forward to the creation of national standards of practice for GP surgeries and hope that GPs take up the offer of audits and training courses.