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	HIQA has published a plain English guide to communicating with patients prompted by the fact that communications issues are at the heart of many of its investigations.</p>
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	Developed in conjunction with the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA), the guide &lsquo;Communicating in Plain English&rsquo; is aimed at all healthcare professionals and social care workers.</p>
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	Director of Safety and Quality Improvement at HIQA Marie Kehoe-O&rsquo;Sullivan said the feedback the Authority had received was that patients often did not fully understand instructions. &ldquo;It really is the root cause of so many issues. It is a lack of communication, a lack of understanding. When people do not understand what they are supposed to do it is impossible for them to do it. Then we end up calling them non-compliant,&rdquo; Kehoe-O&rsquo;Sullivan said.</p>
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	Commonly, communications deficits were identified when patients presented to hospital not understanding they needed to fast or when they scheduled a follow-up appointment but failed to attend, she added, or sometimes people forgot to discontinue medications prior to surgery. &ldquo;They might be on heparin and told to discontinue it and forget about it or not fully understand the need for it.&rdquo;</p>
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	Furthermore, many did not fully understand their medication regime on discharge. &ldquo;If there is not something in writing as well, especially if you have someone who is taking 15 or 16 medications, it can be quite difficult to remember,&rdquo; Kehoe-O&rsquo;Sullivan said.</p>
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	Sometimes a life-changing diagnosis rendered very well-informed patients vulnerable as well, she added. &ldquo;You can be the most savvy, well educated person, but if somebody sits down in front of you and tells you that you have a brain tumour all of that goes out the window.&rdquo; In that scenario, providing a clear, jargon-free information leaflet the patient could refer back to was important.</p>
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	NALA approached HIQA about the issue because people were coming to its service with leaflets they did not understand, the HIQA Director explained. She gave the example of patients being asked their ethnicity on hospital forms.</p>
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	&ldquo;A lot of people will look at that and say, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t understand what I am being asked for here&rsquo;. Words like that become general in the language used by social care professionals, but are not general to the public. We have got to make sure our language is easier to understand.</p>
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	&ldquo;It is also about speaking slowly but not patronisingly, speaking slowly, clearly and that is before you talk about people who have any kind of hearing, visual or learning disability,&rdquo; she said.</p>
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	Some people were also embarrassed to tell their doctor they did not understand or to ask them to explain again, she added. &ldquo;We try to get rid of that power imbalance but the minute you sit in front of a doctor as a patient that power imbalance is automatically there. I think the onus then is on the health professional to make sure that fear is not there,&rdquo; she said.</p>
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	The guide can be downloaded at www.hiqa.ie or hard copies can be requested from Marie Kehoe-O&rsquo;Sullivan at mkehoe@hiqa.ie.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.imt.ie/news/latest-news/2015/11/hiqa-publishes-guide-on-plain-english-communication.html">http://www.imt.ie/news/latest-news/2015/11/hiqa-publishes-guide-on-plain-english-communication.html</a></p>
