Deaf Texting Service

To date over 100 deaf or hard of hearing people are registered with the Caredoc service in the South East and 60 with the D-doc service in North Dublin.

The usage of the service to date has been very positive for patients and contacts are inline with expected levels of activity with 1-4 contacts per month.

The initiative enhances and enables access to the out of hours GP service for the Deaf or hard of hearing patients without the involvement of a hearing person. The objective is to provide a safe, cost effective texting service which is patient friendly, efficient, confidential and enables access to the G.P. out of hours service for registered deaf patients.

The patient is pre-registered on the service database with all relevant demographic and medical information. When a registered deaf/hard of hearing patient needs to contact Caredoc, he/she sends a brief text containing their name, present location, their problem and if they can attend a treatment centre to the designated Caredoc texting number. (The patient receives this number on registration.)

The nurse replies to the text with the appropriate level of care and the patient is offered a treatment centre appointment, home visit or direct referral to casualty. The nurse then informs the staff at the designated treatment centre of the expected arrival of the patient.

Caredoc Deaf Texting Application Form