Hospital staff at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham used a teenage boy to tell his deaf mother that her father might die.
Hospital staff at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust used a teenage boy to tell his deaf mother that her father might die that day, an investigation by England’s Health Ombudsman has found.
Alan Graham was a former furniture maker who had moved to Birmingham to be closer to his grandchildren. In June 2021, he had a fall at home and was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. He suffered swelling in his legs and chest pain and was diagnosed with right-sided heart failure before being discharged in August.
In September 2021, he was admitted again after experiencing similar symptoms and was diagnosed with heart failure. Graham died two weeks later.
During the 11 weeks that he was in hospital, the Trust provided professional interpreters on only three occasions. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) found that the Trust was regularly using two of his grandchildren to communicate with Graham’s daughter, asking them to translate medical information and details about his prognosis.
Graham’s daughter, who was born Deaf and uses British Sign Language (BSL), complained to the PHSO about her father’s care and the use of her children as interpreters.
Unnecessary distress
PHSO found that the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust failed to comply with national guidance by repeatedly using her children, one of whom was 12 years old at the time, to relay information to Graham about his care and treatment. This caused distress to the family and affected their ability to grieve.
“Public services must be accessible to everyone for the system to be fair and equitable. Deaf patients and their families should have access to the same healthcare as everyone else without facing additional barriers,” said Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive at the PHSO.
The Ombudsman found that while a lack of interpreters did not impact the care and treatment that the patient received, it caused worry and stress to his family, whose ability to communicate with medical staff about treatment was also affected.
The PHSO recommended that the Trust create an action plan detailing how it will prevent this from happening again. It also recommended that the Trust apologise and pay Graham’s grandchildren £900 each and pay his daughter £750 for the impact of the failings on them. The Trust has complied.
“In this case, by not consistently providing BSL interpreters to Alan, the Trust caused unnecessary distress in the weeks before his death. Healthcare leaders and professionals must learn from this to make sure that another family does not go through the same experience,” Hilsenrath added.
