The King’s Lynn hospital makes sure that patients have access to interpreters when they need them most. This includes patients who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Face-to-face interpreters are always the first option however interpreters are not always available and people may attend hospital unexpectedly to access urgent emergency care. On-demand support is provided through video and audio calls to communicate with people whose first language is not English, or who use British Sign Language.
In one month alone (January 2025) 9,403 minutes of this important video and audio service was provided to patients to help them at The QEH. Patients use the service for different things from important conversations relating to patient treatment with healthcare staff, to dietary preferences and talking to family members.
The QEH has 24 of these mobile devices which enable easy to use mobile video and audio interpreting. Provided by Language Line, this service is available to non-English speaking patients and those who use British Sign Language (BSL). The Trust was assisted in introducing this service by INTRAN, the multi-agency interpreting and translation partnership based in the East of England.
As part of continuing efforts to improve patient experience for our patients who use BSL, last year 126 members of staff received introductory BSL training from West Norfolk Deaf Association to better support patients – thanks to funding provided by the QEHKL Charity.
Sign Language Week runs from Monday 17 March to Sunday 23 March and is a national awareness week honouring the first time BSL was acknowledged as a language by the UK Government in 2003.
Recently INTRAN published a video featuring QEH colleagues talking about their experiences using the service and the importance of the service for our patients. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Emma Hampton, Critical Care Nurse said “We try to use face-to-face interactions as our preferred method of translation, but the trouble is, it’s not always a real time thing and, in critical care, we have to make some quite rapid decisions. The video interpretation comes in handy because it’s readily available.”
Myra Daines, who was recently a patient on Stanhoe Ward at The QEH and is deaf shared her experience of using Language Line said; I found it so helpful as the Interpreter was able to repeat or translate of anything I wasn’t sure of or needed more information. I would not have had all the information gained without the use of this very valuable service and it’s much appreciated. Highly recommended and thank you.”
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