NHS spends £130k a day on translations for non-English speaking patients.

If that monetary figure is correct then I’m horrified! A translater should only be involved in the rare case that there’s no relative or friend at all to accompany them to hospital.
The waste of money in the NHS is legendary tho, there seems no will to try and do things in a cheaper way at all.

Google Translate seems the way to go.

What I think is that the NHS has over 1.7 million patient contacts every day, of which according to your source £130k is spent on translation. That is very little as a proportion of the NHS expenditure isn’t it? Given that the NHS is legally obligated to provide care to all users in a language they can understand, what alternative do you suggest?

Hmm. That they bring a friend Casdon who can interpret for them? A novel idea I know.

Or as most people have a smartphone, Google Translate.

I wonder what Wes Streeting makes of it all?

Given that the NHS is legally obligated to provide care to all users in a language they can understand, what alternative do you suggest?

Or that we change its remit?
European countries with fantastic healthcare (often with better outcomes than ours) don’t pander to their patients like this.

Just us mugs.

Here in France there are maybe 4 hospitals in Paris which provide English speaking staff. This is not the case for the rest of the country.
You either:
Bring someone with you who can assist you with communication
Muddle by with the basic English that French doctors and nurses learn as part of their course
Use an online translating service like Luckygirl suggests
Or accept you are in a foreign country and put up with the situation.

I used to accompany people to hospital in France, or do the emergency dash with them. The going rate for a translator in this case is around 60 euros an hour. I did it for free.

£130,000 a day sounds like an extortionate sum if correct.

Agree FGT
I met a a friend of a friend, whilst in France this spring ,A private translator for mainly English ex pats

She is very busy.
She translates paperwork as well as verbal translation.
Accompanies clients to medical appointments, also legal appointments, especially appointments with local Mayors . French paperwork is something else.

Yet another topic on which we profoundly disagree FriedGreenTomatoes2. Google translate is not adequate in an emergency or a situation where somebody has complex medical conditions, it does not interpret medical terminology. It’s erroneous to compare UK citizens attending for care in Europe, because is the second language for the majority of Europeans, what happens in France when somebody who speaks no European languages is in an emergency situation is a more relevant comparator. I will try to find out.

escaped

Here in France there are maybe 4 hospitals in Paris which provide English speaking staff. This is not the case for the rest of the country.
You either:
Bring someone with you who can assist you with communication
Muddle by with the basic English that French doctors and nurses learn as part of their course
Use an online translating service like Luckygirl suggests
Or accept you are in a foreign country and put up with the situation.

I used to accompany people to hospital in France, or do the emergency dash with them. The going rate for a translator in this case is around 60 euros an hour. I did it for free.

£130,000 a day sounds like an extortionate sum if correct.

Having spent much of the last three years dealing with DH's serious illnesses in a number of hospital departments in France (not Paris), I don't entirely agree with that. We both speak fluent French, but frequently meet doctors who speak very good English, because they have spent years living in English speaking countries; including bilingual doctors with an English parent.
We tend to prepare updates for doctors in English and translate them, because the complexities of serious conditions are not part of everyday vocabulary and the nuances are important. It isn't easy.

AI Overview
Yes, the French health service has some professional interpreter services, but they are not universally available or consistently implemented. While public hospitals may offer these services, their availability can be limited due to costs and time constraints. You may also find private language service providers, Aalia tech, that provide real-time translation for patients not fluent in French, or individual doctors willing to offer translation for an additional fee.
Official Interpreter Services:
Hospital-Based Services:
Public hospitals may have systems for providing professional interpreters, but this is not guaranteed and may be limited.
Health Authority Guidelines:
In 2017, the French Health Authority released guidelines for the use of interpreters in healthcare settings, but their implementation remains irregular.

This sounds like yet another FGT Daily Mail headline designed to provoke division in society.

I expect when it's broken down, the figure quoted includes BSL interpreters for deaf patients, help for blind and partially sighted people and other similar assistance for people with communication difficulties and learning difficulties but maybe we shouldn't be 'pandering' to people who can't fend for themselves?

Media Attacks on NHS Translation and Diversity Spending Completely Miss the Point of the Health Service

Albeit from last year, a balanced, explanatory piece from David Oliver as an antidote to the usual tabloid hysteria and outrage.

Oliver is an NHS Consultant in Geriatrics and General Internal Medicine. He is a former National Clinical Director for Older People in the Social Care Division of the Department of Health and former President of the British Geriatrics Society. He looks after many older people who require social care and works closely with social care teams. He has a weekly column in the British Medical Journal.

bylinetimes.com/2024/04/04/nhs-woke-attacks-translation-diversity-equality/

Extracts:

Citizens or legal residents who don’t speak fluent or even basic English are, just like people with hearing loss, learning disabilities or cognitive impairment, as entitled to NHS care as the rest of the population. And there is already considerable evidence that they are not getting it, with health and healthcare access inequalities between different ethnic communities.

Denying people written information in their own language will only make matters worse.

When people who are sick, scared, vulnerable, distressed or have symptoms to discuss, treatments to understand, or complex psychosocial factors to explain, how can the quality and safety of the care they receive be improved if they can neither express nor understand key information?

There are also legal considerations. To provide valid consent to treatment in common law, patients must have sufficient information about the details, risks, potential harms and benefits of a proposed treatment (which could in some cases involve major surgery, powerful drugs or admission to intensive care). Language barriers must be overcome to make this a reality.

Regulatory codes of practice for healthcare professionals are also clear that we must treat people equally, irrespective of characteristics including race, religion or nationality.

Using AI translation apps of variable reliability has its limits in a time-critical or emotionally-charged and challenging situation. And relying on family or friends to translate isn’t always possible as not every patient is accompanied. If they are discussing personally sensitive or intimate information, they may be inhibited from doing so. If there are safeguarding concerns regarding abuse or neglect one could suspect the person translating of being coercive when doing so.

Thank you - PaynesGrey

I'm sorry to hear your DH has had to have thorough medical treatment Mamie. I agree, and stated, that the staff speak reasonably good English because it is a mandatory part of their training. OK, maybe basic was a bit cheeky
But if you are say Chinese, Syrian or Russian in France, there's nothing you can do but attend and hope for the best.

Take a friend PaynesGrey then? I am not being argumentative I just don’t see the problem with doing so. It works in Europe as explained a up thread.

Why do WE have to supply bells & whistles? Just why. I don’t get it.

Thank you escaped for supporting what I’m trying to say here but in a much better way. ✔️

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Thank you escaped for supporting what I’m trying to say here but in a much better way. ✔️

But what escaped said isn’t an accurate description of how translation services work in France FriedGreenTomatoes2?

Goodness knows how much it costs in Wales. Everything is translated into Welsh (apparently it's the first language as far as the NHS is concerned) and you have to search for the English translation in letters, texts etc.

Then, of course, everything has to be translated into different languages for anyone who cannot speak Welsh or English. Around another 98 languages are spoken in Wales.

PaynesGrey I'm not sure how many official translators we would actually have in this country for all the different languages spoken and how many the NHS would need to have on its books.

Therefore, if a person is unable to speak enough English (or Welsh) to understand the medical staff, why is it not possible to ask them to bring a family member or friend with them for the appointment? After all, if they cannot speak English, how can they read the appointment letters?

MollyNew

This sounds like yet another FGT Daily Mail headline designed to provoke division in society.

I expect when it's broken down, the figure quoted includes BSL interpreters for deaf patients, help for blind and partially sighted people and other similar assistance for people with communication difficulties and learning difficulties but maybe we shouldn't be 'pandering' to people who can't fend for themselves?

Why not find out and provide some statistics so we can see?

Medical translation and interpreting is a specialist skill, which needs trained professionals if it is to be done properly. £130k is good value for this service.

escaped

Here in France there are maybe 4 hospitals in Paris which provide English speaking staff. This is not the case for the rest of the country.
You either:
Bring someone with you who can assist you with communication
Muddle by with the basic English that French doctors and nurses learn as part of their course
Use an online translating service like Luckygirl suggests
Or accept you are in a foreign country and put up with the situation.

I used to accompany people to hospital in France, or do the emergency dash with them. The going rate for a translator in this case is around 60 euros an hour. I did it for free.

£130,000 a day sounds like an extortionate sum if correct.

DH's relatives live in France. The wife is fluent in French, the husband not so, and of course she goes with him for his medical appointments. Otherwise I am sure that Google translate would be of great benefit.

paynesgrey

Thank you for a rational and sensible post

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Take a friend PaynesGrey then? I am not being argumentative I just don’t see the problem with doing so. It works in Europe as explained a up thread.

Why do WE have to supply bells & whistles? Just why. I don’t get it.

Neither do I FGT2. We pander to everybody yet, as others say, not many other countries do.

If people choose to live here then they should be able to read, write and understand English.

vintage1950

Medical translation and interpreting is a specialist skill, which needs trained professionals if it is to be done properly. £130k is good value for this service.

You do realise that figure of £130,000 is per DAY.