Accessible Information Standard in M18

The Accessible Information Standard aims to make sure that people who have a disability or sensory loss get information that they can access and understand, and any communication support that they need.

AIS tells organisation how they should make sure that patients and service users, and their carers and parents, can access and understand the information they are given. This includes making sure that people get information in accessible formats. The Standard also tells organisation how they should make sure that people get support from a communication professional if they need it, and about changing working practices to support effective communication.

Healthwatch Manchester visited three (3) pharmacies in the M16 area which incorporates Abbey Hay and Gorton. All pharmacies allowed us to assess their knowledge and implementation of the AIS none of the three pharmacies had at least vague knowledge of what the AIS is.

None of the three pharmacies we visited provided access to a BSL relay service such as SignVideo and none of the pharmacies we visited provided Large Print Materials or Yellow and Black labelling on their products for visually impaired service users.

However, two out of the three pharmacies in the M18 area did provide a hearing loop for service users, this equates to 66% of all pharmacies in the area.

Therefore we concluded that the staff and pharmacists in these pharmacies all need further training on what the AIS is and what the requirements are for this, they can do this via reading the materials HWM provided them with on our visits. Furthermore, more of the pharmacies in the M18 area need to provide a BSL relay service such as SignVideo for their visually impaired patients as none of the three pharmacies in M18 provided this service.

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