Doctors Learn Sign Language to Communicate With Hearing-Speech Impaired

The health department has sent letters to all district hospitals to nominate a doctor in their hospital to learn sign language.

Highlights

At least one doctor in a hospital must learn sign language to communicate with the hearing and speech impaired patient. //
Training sessions for the doctors will be held in the respective hospitals by specialists.

Based on orders from the health department, a Mumbai-based organisation, which works for hearing impaired persons, will give lessons to selected doctors of the state on how to communicate effectively with hearing and speech impaired patients coming to their hospitals for treatment.

The health department has issued directions that at least one doctor in government and private hospitals, which have more than 50-bed capacity, should learn the sign language to communicate with the hearing and speech impaired patients.

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‘Hospitals with at least 50-bed capacity should have a doctor who can understand sign language of the speech and hearing impaired patients.’

The health department has sent letters to all district hospitals to nominate a doctor in their hospital to learn sign language. "We have given time to all the officials in district hospitals to nominate a doctor by Monday to learn sign language," a health department official said.

The health department has roped in an organisation, which is based in Mumbai to help doctors learning sign language. "The Mumbai-based organisation also has centres in other states and works for hearing and speech impaired people. It will teach the sign language to doctors in a programme, which will be at least 15-day long and held in Jaipur," said Dr Ramavatar Jaiswal, state nodal officer, National Programme for prevention and control of deafness.

He said that initially they have started taking measures to teach sign language to at least one doctor in the district hospitals of all 33 districts. Jaiswal added that in January they will start holding classes for doctors on sign language. There will be at least four or five sign language experts to teach the doctors.

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On December 18, health minister Kalicharan Saraf had directed the officials to make arrangements of at least one doctor in hospitals to know sign language as doctors find it difficult to understand what the hearing and speech impaired patient is trying to communicate.

Source-Medindia

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