VITAL documents used by patients with communication problems are being ‘ignored’ by hospital staff.

Patients with learning disabilities often carry a ‘Health Passport’, which is a small booklet containing key information about their care requirements, such as allergies and mobility issues.

MORE TOP STORIES:

But Stuart Sheridan, a service transformation manager at Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), says the booklets are not being treated seriously by clinical staff at the Royal Blackburn Hospital, even when patients hand them over to nurses.

A CCG meeting heard how one patient was told by nursing staff: “You don’t need your passport here, you’re not abroad.”

Mr Sheridan says the women would have received better treatment if staff had read the document. He said: “It’s very rare staff actually read it. For doctors and nurses not to take this on board is doing a huge disservice to these documents which have been in use for ten years,”

The health boss wants to see the initiative relaunched to try and boost awareness.

Dominic Harrison, the borough’s director of public health, said: “This highlights one of our principle causes of health inequalities.

“People with learning disabilities can die on average 20 years before other people because of a lack of routine preventative interventions.”

David Tansley, associate director of quality and safety at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal Blackburn, said: “We take these comments very seriously and it will help us as we review the scheme.

“We continue to give 100 per cent support for the passports which enable important personal and medical information to be communicated between health professionals and people with learning disabilities.”