3. The waiting area

Practices should consider fitting an induction loop in their reception areas. Ensure that the logo informing patients that the loop is fitted is easily visible and has not been covered with notices and stickers.

The loop should be tested and maintained on a monthly basis. The responsibility for this should be agreed and communicated between staff, and a record should be kept of each time the loop is tested. In addition, a sign should be displayed encouraging patients to report if the loop is not working.

The ambient noise level in a waiting area is often low; by contrast the reception area is often very busy with telephone calls and multiple conversations taking place. The need for the practice team to demonstrate deaf awareness can be appreciated by anyone by standing in the quiet of the waiting area for a few minutes and then walking up to the busy reception desk.

All practice staff should make an arrangement with a deaf or hard of hearing patient, when they first check in, how they will notify them when it is their turn to see a doctor or nurse. The traditional system of calling out patient’s names is clearly limited.

Practice staff should be helped to realise that it takes no more than a few seconds to walk out into the waiting area and make direct eye contact with the appropriate patient. Patients with hearing loss worry about missing their turn and can find sitting in the waiting area very stressful. The practice team can really improve the patient experience by demonstrating their deaf awareness through their actions.

Some practices have visual systems to indicate the ‘next patient’ message. These can range from sophisticated screens linked with the reception system to simple pegboards with numbered and coloured tags. If a practice is considering changing their system, some thought should be given to how it will be used by patients with hearing loss.

Although it might be tempting to believe that a visual system caters completely for the needs of those with hearing loss, feedback suggests that this is not the whole picture. The patient needs a visual signal to tell them to ‘go to a consulting room now’ and not just ‘it’s your turn next’. Patients with hearing loss report that they tend to watch these systems intently, determined not to miss their turn or avoid an embarrassing situation. But they often miss the ‘your turn now’ signal. If the receptionist confirms with the patient when they first check in that ‘someone will come and tell you when it’s time’, then the patient can avoid a stressful wait, staring at the visual system for what might feel like a long time.

Alternatively, deaf patients could be issued with an alerter system on arrival. This would be linked to the visual system and would vibrate each time a name appeared on the system, letting the patient know when it is their turn to go into the consulting room.