Lack of accessible information for patient with visual impairment
Summary
The Trust did not identify, record or act on a patient’s accessible information needs, meaning he was discharged from hospital with information he could not understand.
The complaint
Carol complained about the care and treatment Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust gave her boyfriend, Neil. Part of her complaint was that the Trust did not provide accessible information.
Neil was in his 60s and had a visual impairment. He went to hospital in May 2020 for a leg amputation and went home the following month. Carol told us Neil was bombarded with so much information when he was sent home and he was finding it difficult to take everything in.
She said the hospital should have provided large print information about his medication and telephone numbers to ring, so he knew who to contact if he needed help. She told us an advocate had rung the hospital to request this.
What we found
We found that the Trust did not follow the NHS accessible information standard, which includes asking people if they have any information or communication needs, finding out how to meet them and recording them clearly. We found that this went wrong at several stages during Neil’s hospital stay.
The Trust’s complaint response said:
- there was no record of Neil’s visual impairment in the emergency department notes and the admission notes were incomplete
- the pharmacist who confirmed the medication history with Neil did not pick up that he had a visual impairment, so they did not record this on the inpatient prescription chart or discharge prescription
- there was no information about Neil’s visual impairment on the previous conditions box.
It was clear that the failure by the Trust to provide information in an accessible format caused anxiety and upset to Neil and Carol. The Trust had apologised for this, but it had not recognised why this went wrong nor improved its service.
Putting things right
Carol hoped to make sure things are better for patients in future. We asked the Trust to write to her to accept what it got wrong and apologise. We also said it should learn from the complaint. We recommended that it should look into why the mistakes happened and make an action plan to stop them from happening again.
Following our investigation, the Trust reviewed Neil’s care to identify where learning was needed. This led to actions for pharmacy staff, nursing and clinical staff to make sure patients’ disabilities are identified and documented.
It also took action to improve the accessibility of written material for patients with a visual impairment. It updated its guidance and electronic system so that adjustments for patients with a disability are built in from the start.