Blind and visually impaired persons are urging the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) to implement audio alerts for medication collection, highlighting a significant accessibility gap in healthcare services.
Their calls come in the wake of repeated challenges members of that community encounter while accessing certain services at the island’s lone public general hospital.
On Thursday, a caller on the radio call-in programme Down to Brass Tacks complained that while audio alert indicators were put in place to accommodate persons with disabilities in at least two of the island’s polyclinics, more could be done at the hospital.
The caller, who identified himself as blind, said: “What I am calling about is something that I experience every time I go to the pharmacy at the QEH and I hoping that the director of the QEH and the minister is listening to me very carefully. I am blind, let me make that clear first. When I go to Winston Scott Polyclinic or the Edgar Cochrane Polyclinic to get medication, there is a device at the pharmacy that tells you the number and you then would go up to the pharmacy and hand in your prescription and get your medication. But what I have observed is that when I got to the eye clinic at the hospital and I have to go and get medication from the pharmacy, they have that same device but it doesn’t talk. So anybody that goes to the pharmacy at the QEH that is blind or visually impaired they have to depend on somebody to tell them when their number is up on the screen. I would like the director of the hospital or the minister to look into that and make sure that they put one of the ones that talk.”
Failing that, the caller suggested that a teller terminal system be set up in which people could pull numbers and an automated audio caller would announce the number.
Vice-president of the Barbados Council for the Disabled, Ambassador Kerry-Ann Ifill, confirmed that her organisation had received numerous complaints about the situation over the years.
Ifill told Barbados TODAY that there were technologies such as vibrating buzzers that could be used.
“They could use the same system that the restaurants are using, the buzzer system, which would make better sense because they flash and vibrate and use them for people who only have disabilities. That way, when you go and you are blind or deaf, nobody would have to tell you when your number [is] called. That is a simple solution and yes, it is a big issue that we face with the hospital,” she said.
Asked how persons with disabilities get around the issue, she said: “With a lot of frustration and there are some good people out there that will tell you your number called or ask you what number you have and monitor it for you. Some nurses also assist but it doesn’t lend to an independent experience.”
Ifill added that people with disabilities wanted to be independent and feel empowered and issues such as this were a major setback.
When contacted, the QEH promised a response to the concerns highlighted, but no statement was provided up to press time. (SZB)
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