A disabled support group is calling on hospital bosses in Bradford to find new ways of communicating with blind and visually-impaired people to prevent the problem of missed appointments.

Members of Contact Peer Support, a support service run by and for disabled people in the Bradford district, say they have been campaigning for years for hospital appointments to be sent out in a format which is accessible to blind people.

Contact Peer Support chairman and volunteer support worker Linda Hanson, who is blind, said: “A printed appointment letter is a waste of time for a blind person.

“We can’t read a printed letter. It is like me sending you a letter in Braille and expecting you to read it.

“I take my post everywhere to get people to read it. Some blind people might not see someone for a week and miss their appointment.

“I think it is a really widespread and it is an ongoing problem. We have gone on and on and on about it and we can’t understand why it can’t be sorted out.”

Mrs Hanson, of Low Moor, Bradford, raised the problem after the Telegraph & Argus last week revealed the scale of missed appointments at Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital.

A Trust spokesman said: “We are reviewing how we can more effectively communicate with all our patients, including those who are blind or partially sighted, by sending reminders and/or appointments to patients via SMS text messaging.

“Those who are blind or partially sighted reflect only a small percentage of the overall figure, and so we reiterate our appeal to the vast number of patients who do get their appointment letters but fail to tell us if they can’t attend, please let us know so that we can rearrange it, or inform us so that we can allocate it to those who need it.”

  • Read the full story in Thursday's T&A