In bullet points below is what the Health Board is expected to do in secondary care services when providing health services to you.
Secondary care is broadly services that are not available through a GP, community pharmacy or high street optician or dentist. This may include the emergency department, maternity, outpatient appointments, in-patient wards, a diabetes clinic or surgery. The services will usually be on a hospital site or in a clinic, and you would have been referred to them if it isn’t urgent.
The legislation relevant to these duties are the Welsh Language Standards Regulations (N.7) 2018, which our ‘compliance notice’ is based on.
Here are your rights to use Welsh with the Health Board in these services:
- Being pro-active with your language rights: The right to not have to go to the effort of telling us your language preference – we have to ask you and record this. We also have to promote our bilingual services to the public;
- Promoting our language across the system: Where you see the Working Welsh symbol (the orange speech bubble with ‘Cymraeg’ written in it) on a sign, on a poster, on a work uniform or a lanyard on a ward or at an appointment, use your Welsh. The Health Board must provide these signs, badges and lanyards to its staff to promote Welsh;
- Using Welsh over the phone: The right to use Welsh over the phone, with a Welsh greeting and the ability to discuss your query in Welsh;
- Welsh in the physical environment: The right to see and hear Welsh around you, on signs, posters, advertising material and displays with Welsh on top or to the left, and on tannoy and recorded message systems;
- Health courses: The right to follow a health education course in Welsh where we offer them;
- Correspondence: The right to receive correspondence (letters, emails, texts) in Welsh & the right to a response in Welsh without undue delay;
- Written information: The right to have documents and forms in Welsh;
- Receptions: The right to a Welsh language service at reception;
- Digital media: The right to use our website and apps in Welsh with each page exactly reflecting the English one, and the right to navigate the pages easily to find, in Welsh, what you’re looking for;
- Social media: The right to see and use both languages on social media where the accounts will match each other in terms of content, and the right to contact us in Welsh via social media and receive a response in Welsh;
- Meetings and events: The right to use Welsh at a meeting or case conference, and the right to see and use Welsh at all public meetings and events.
These rights are part of what the law has called ‘Service Delivery Standards’. That’s not all the Health Board is expected to do; we’re also expected to embed Welsh in how make decisions, form policies and recruit staff. We’re also expected to promote the language internally, to ensure staff know what your rights are and how they can use and learn our language at work.
For more detailed information, see our ‘compliance notice’ here. Our compliance notice is a legal document under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 and sets out standards of conduct for Welsh which we must adhere to.