The NHS wants to hear from people who use interpreting and translation services when accessing NHS primary care services across the North East.
The NHS England and NHS Improvement Public Health team responsible for commissioning this service now require views on what has worked well and what could be improved within the current service.
Interpretation and translation services are provided free to patients accessing primary care services. This means access to spoken and non-spoken word interpretation when seeing a GP, dentist, pharmacist or optometrist, for example.
We know that difficulties accessing health care for Deaf and non-English speakers increase health inequalities – and therefore views from those who have used this service since April 2018 are sought. Feedback will be used to shape how these services will look going forward.
People can feedback until Monday 16 November in the following ways:
- Request an interpretation and translation patient feedback survey from england.phadminwf4@nhs.net This is also available in multiple languages
- By visiting https://www.england.nhs.uk/north-east-yorkshire/interpretation/ where online feedback options are available in multiple languages
- By emailing comments to england.phadminwf4@nhs.net in their community language or otherwise
In 2018 Healthwatch Darlington listened to local BAME community members about their experiences of the accessibility within GP services across Darlington. They told us about things such as registering with a GP in Darlington, the support and standard of care they are given when using their GP surgery, and the provisions in place to address language barriers for BAME patients. This feedback was then shared with NHS England.
You can read the initial findings in the report belowBlack, Minority and Ethnic (BME) Communities - GP Accessibility & Registration Report 2018
