National and European legislation on Human Rights and Equality are clear in the Criminal Justice System. People need to understand and to be able to be understood. Qualified and accountable interpreters should enable dialogue between English-speaking staff in NHS hospitals and health-care situations just as in police/court settings. A National Register of Public Service Interpreters (health/legal/ local government) was set up after a report from the Nuffield Foundation over 25 years ago.
NHS England is drafting Standards on Accessibility. British Sign Language and Braille are included. There are going to be National Standards to ensure that people with hearing/visual impairment can access services despite their disability. If patients do not understand or speak English it is just as much a barrier to to accessing NHS care/treatment as diminished hearing or sight. NHS England argues that language needs vary in different part of the country, so there can be no National Standard.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation