NHS Englandhas been accused of “dragging its feet” on bringing in new accessibility procedures, leading to disabled people routinely struggling to access healthcare and facing cancelled appointments. The Accessible Information Standard (AIS), originally implemented in 2016, was part of legislation designed to ensure that NHS and adult social care services providers make sure that people with a disability are able to have their accessibility requirements met when accessing health and social care. In 2022, NHS England accepted a recommendation to revise the AIS, which had stronger wording than the original, meaning that providers of NHS care “must comply with the information standard”, whereas the earlier standard said providers only had to “have regard to an information standard”.
The updated standard was meant to be published in 2023, but its publication has been delayed. Charities and organisations have said that the delay has meant that many deaf patients have been left without the ability to make GP appointments and receive test results because health services often rely on phone calls. Adapted NHS bowel cancer test developed for blind and partly sighted people Read more Abigail Gorman, SignHealth policy and research manager, accused the NHS of dragging its feet in improving access, which was “failing deaf people and putting our lives at risk”.
She added: “For deaf people, poor access to healthcare is unfortunately one of the most common and sometimes lif.
