Parirenyatwa bemoans lack of sign language skills

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HEALTH and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa says lack of resources has hampered government efforts to train health personnel to be able to communicate effectively with hard of hearing and hard of speech patients.

HEALTH and Child Care minister David Parirenyatwa says lack of resources has hampered government efforts to train health personnel to be able to communicate effectively with hard of hearing and hard of speech patients. Feluna Nleya Staff Reporter

Parirenyatwa recently told our sister paper NewsDay that it was imperative for medical personnel to train in sign language to improve their communication skills so as to avoid making wrong diagnosis and prescriptions on patients.

“We are facing problems in training people in sign language,” Parirenyatwa said.

“We have very few of those, so I think it’s an area that needs to be looked at closely to see what we can do for the hearing impaired and those unable to speak.”

He said in some instances, the patients often resorted to writing on a piece of paper so as to get treated, but the challenge obtains for those who are unable to write.

Chitungwiza Central Hospital recently had 25 of its health providers trained in sign language.

Hospital spokesperson Audrey Tasaranarwo said the training programme had closed the communication gap between health personnel and patients.

According to the National Association for the Care of the Handicapped, there were at least 500 000 people in the country who were either hearing or speech impaired or both.