Julie is blind with a mild hearing impairment. She has a number of health issues including heart failure and problems with her kidneys and lungs. Here, she tells us about her experiences of receiving healthcare from the NHS as a blind person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m usually able to attend health appointments and communicate with staff with the help of a Sense support worker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some specialists talk across me, to the support worker rather than me. And I won\u2019t have that. I\u2019ll stop that conversation straight away and get them to talk to me direct. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Doctors are sometimes quite condescending. Yes, I\u2019m blind, but they act like I\u2019m stupid as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I\u2019ve had situations where they\u2019ve put food down and not told me it\u2019s there. Cups of tea have been put down and I\u2019m not aware they\u2019re there.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n During longer stays in hospital without my support worker, I\u2019ve been disappointed in the level of blind awareness of medical staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve had situations where they\u2019ve put food down and not told me it\u2019s there. Cups of tea have been put down and I\u2019m not aware they\u2019re there. Staff are just not blind aware. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the days I felt well enough, I gave the nursing staff some basic training concepts on how to treat blind people. The staff were so grateful for that. They said that they\u2019d asked management for that kind of training in the past, but management weren\u2019t listening to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the biggest issue I have is with the information they send. I get letters from the NHS about hospital appointments and results that are not accessible to me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “I\u2019d like to be more regularly asked about my communication needs. Nobody\u2019s ever asked me.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been in touch with the hospital and asked if this information could be emailed to me, or they could read it over the phone to me. They say they can\u2019t because of patient confidentiality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That makes me laugh, because my patient confidentiality is compromised anyway because I have to get someone to help me read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d like to be more regularly asked about my communication needs. Nobody\u2019s ever asked me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only time I\u2019ve ever been asked is when I went for a breast screening appointment and they said they could send the results to me in braille. And then they did! That was fantastic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think it doesn\u2019t even come up in the conversation because they just assume you\u2019ve got someone to read letters to you. It\u2019s just not discussed at all, which it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n