New report highlights ongoing barriers for Deaf and hard of hearing people accessing healthcare in Leicester and Leicestershire

Report - 29 June 2026

Our latest report reveals that, ten years on from Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire's first insight report into Deaf people’s experiences of local health services, significant barriers remain for Deaf and hard of hearing residents trying to access NHS care.
‘A decade on: Progress and challenges in Deaf and hard of hearing healthcare access’, draws on the views of 110 Deaf and hard of hearing people across Leicester and Leicestershire.
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Progress and challenges in Deaf and hard of hearing healthcare access
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Accessing Health and Social Care Services: Deaf Community

Our access to Health care project is to listen and to explore how people have been accessing their health care and what that experience has been like for them.
In November 2022, we attended the Deaf Community Centre in Leicester to seek the deaf communities' views on their experiences in accessing healthcare. We engaged with eight members of the community. This was a face to-face focus group session which were culturally sensitive and community interpreters were used where required.

Read the findings from our research in the report.
Find out more