Woman's fears over deaf mother's care

Carol Spencer (left) said poor support for her unwell mother Barbara (right) was like living "part two", after a similar experience with her father

A woman who believed her father had a "painful" death because his deafness meant he did not get appropriate support said she was worried the same thing was now happening to her mother.

Carol Spencer, who is partially deaf, grew up using British Sign Language (BSL) with her parents Alan and Barbara Spencer, who were both unable to hear.

She said Alan's death was "traumatic, chaotic, painful" because she believed there was a lack of BSL interpreters in the health system, and she felt she was going through "the exact same thing" again with Barbara being unwell.

The NHS said it was sorry the family, from Northampton, had "experienced challenges".

Alan Spencer needed a BSL interpreter to attend medical appointments with him

Alan Spencer lived with Parkinson's disease for 12 years and died with bowel cancer in November, aged 88.

His daughter said his death was distressing and she would "never, ever stop feeling guilty for that, because I should have done more".

She said her mother, 83, was now unwell and in a recent six-week stay at Northampton General Hospital she saw a BSL interpreter just once.

Barbara, who has the reading age of a seven or eight-year-old, has since been discharged to a care home.

Barbara Spencer was recently in hospital for six weeks, but the family said she had very little contact with an interpreter

Jenny Dawkins from charity Deafconnect, based in Northampton, said the organisation heard similar stories "nearly every day".

While the NHS should provide a BSL interpreter "this doesn't always happen", she said.

Legal duty

The Northamptonshire integrated care board, which oversees NHS services in the county, said: "The local NHS has a legal duty to ensure services are accessible to all members of the community and provide additional support where this is required or requested, such as providing information in alternative languages or formats.

"NHS services will also book interpreters including BSL interpreters for patients with additional needs.

"Although we are not able to comment on individual cases, we are sorry this family has experienced challenges accessing these services and we would encourage them to contact us directly via our Patient Experience team, so we can more robustly investigate the challenges they have been experiencing."

Northampton General Hospital said it could not comment on individual cases, but said anyone with concerns should contact the relevant department.

Palmer Winstanley, acting chief executive, said the hospital "always tried to accommodate requests for interpretation services, such as BSL, to support our patients while they are receiving care".