NHS translation costs criticized (England)

Neil Coffey wrote:


If you're looking for subtle political ways to encourage people to learn English or integrate more into society, then you might argue that that's not such a bad goal per se.

But I would suggest that denying people reliable communication over their health is a dangerous tool to use for that purpose.

I'm sure that the Daily Mail will be equally outraged when it transpires that a hospital was not made aware of a rape or child abuse case, or inadvertently gave a patient incorrect medication that caused a fatal drug interaction, due to poor communication.

Samuel Murray wrote:

The actual report can be downloaded for free, here:
http://www.2020health.org/2020health/Publication/Professional-Development/Translation-Services.html

Alex Lago wrote:

Not that right now Spain can be considered a model to follow, but we do supposedly (that's what our "researchers" say) get a lot of people from other country's in Europe coming to Spain for medical treatment, apart from all the tourists that come on holiday, and I can tell you that there are no interpreter's in Spanish public hospitals, so you either speak Spanish or come to the doctor with someone who can.

SBL_UK wrote:



...what do you suggest, then, to get large parts of the UK's own population learning their own language properly? I meet foreigners every day who speak impeccable English, be it with slight accents that indicate that they are not originally from the UK. Last week I spoke to somebody who runs a couple of businesses, and he told me that he preferred to employ foreigners (for jobs where communicational skills are fare more important than degrees) as they are politer and (in most cases) speak far more decent English than most of the British that would show up for the job (if any at all, in some cases!).

It is not up to hospitals to "force" people to learn English...there are other ways of doing that.....One doesn't play games with people's health. Just as I heard a doctor who worked for the NHS, a couple of weeks ago in an interview in which he categorically refused to report "illegals" or "supposedly illegals" when they show up at the hospital for medical help. He literally said that a doctor should treat patients instead of acting like a snitch. There are other people who are supposed to do that.

Once again: I would absolutely love to see people in other countries refusing to "communicate in English" (even if they are more than capable of doing so) when UK citizens show up in need of help. Let us see then if the same reasoning will still be upheld.