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

Mt61

Erm 🤔 learn some English before thinking of coming to this country to live.

Erm Learn some Spanish before pitching up in Spain.

Oh no, don't bother, Just shout.

I know NHS has to spend a fortune in producing information leaflets in a wide variety of languages too.

Does anyone remember these little phrase books used for foreign visits?
With stuff like:
I've chopped my finger off.
I've got raging diarrhoea.

Hopikins

I object most strongly with the Uk paying for translators for patients using the NHS. However the one thing I object to most is me( English born and bred) needing a translator for some of the doctors and nurses in our hospitals, I know its not just me, I have many elderly friends who struggle dreadfully in trying to understand what many foreign born doctors and nurses are saying too them. Being able to speak English clearly should be mandatory for all professionals in the NHS

When my elderly husband was admitted into our local hospital, I was his translator. He really struggled understanding what the foreign care assistants, nurses and doctors were saying to him, made worse because he is hard of hearing.

Thankfully, the community district nurses and physio therapists who came to our house are all English.

When I was at the hospital visiting my DH, I was talking to a local student nurse. She told me in her university classes of 150 students, 115 roughly two thirds of them are international students.

She told me that her friends who graduated this year could not get a job because of cuts in NHS. They are either working at Pets at Home or joining the NHS bank working as care assistant to try to get into nursing that way.

To me, it is scandalous that NHS spent 75 million on translators/ interpreters yet newly graduated local students could not even get a job.

It is not ideal to use a relative or friend to translate if you are talking about delicate subjects such as suicidal ideas, consistency of motions, erectile dysfunction, or piles. Without translators wrong diagnoses will be made and inappropriate treatments may be given.

Mt61 and Hopikins
They do have to pass English tests.
I know someone who is currently studying and unable to apply for Nursing jobs till she has it.

Re phone appointments - my mother-in-law cannot decipher even sone British accents on the phone.
I have specifically asked the surgery to provide an "easily understood" person with clear articulation/ annunciation to do all her phone appointments because she would struggle to hear/understand.
They actually switched over her last appointment to someone else.
👍
Worth asking.

I’ve no plans to migrate to Spain S G

Happyretired123, I so appreciated your final comment about there always being something to be outraged about
I’ve never known a time in my 76 years when so many were so outraged .

SporeRB

Hopikins

I object most strongly with the Uk paying for translators for patients using the NHS. However the one thing I object to most is me( English born and bred) needing a translator for some of the doctors and nurses in our hospitals, I know its not just me, I have many elderly friends who struggle dreadfully in trying to understand what many foreign born doctors and nurses are saying too them. Being able to speak English clearly should be mandatory for all professionals in the NHS

When my elderly husband was admitted into our local hospital, I was his translator. He really struggled understanding what the foreign care assistants, nurses and doctors were saying to him, made worse because he is hard of hearing.

Thankfully, the community district nurses and physio therapists who came to our house are all English.

When I was at the hospital visiting my DH, I was talking to a local student nurse. She told me in her university classes of 150 students, 115 roughly two thirds of them are international students.

She told me that her friends who graduated this year could not get a job because of cuts in NHS. They are either working at Pets at Home or joining the NHS bank working as care assistant to try to get into nursing that way.

To me, it is scandalous that NHS spent 75 million on translators/ interpreters yet newly graduated local students could not even get a job.

The Graduate Guarantee Scheme was authorised last month - it guarantees nursing graduates a job and also allows trusts to employ graduates on projected staffing levels.
I hope it helps. We don't seem to gear about the good stuff the government is trying to do
NHS England » Graduate guarantee for newly qualified nurses and midwives share.google/BIYg2wUKtTBRxfVp9

NotSpaghetti

Mt61 and Hopikins
They do have to pass English tests.
I know someone who is currently studying and unable to apply for Nursing jobs till she has it.

Re phone appointments - my mother-in-law cannot decipher even sone British accents on the phone.
I have specifically asked the surgery to provide an "easily understood" person with clear articulation/ annunciation to do all her phone appointments because she would struggle to hear/understand.
They actually switched over her last appointment to someone else.
👍
Worth asking.

*Mt61 and Hopikins*
They do have to pass English tests.
I know someone who is currently studying and unable to apply for Nursing jobs till she has it.

Yes, even if their first language is English and they are from a country where English is the official language of that country, nor so long ago they had to take an English exam first, but that may no longer be the case.

Iam64

Happyretired123, I so appreciated your final comment about there always being something to be outraged about
I’ve never known a time in my 76 years when so many were so outraged .

I'm glad you said that because I was about to!

You also used to need to pass a "Use of English" exam to teach part time as a postgraduate student in universities in America, Allira.

I don't know if you needed it for full time positions- I guess so.

I know someone who, in the 1970s had won a prestigious award to study over there and this was what he had to do to work a few hours.

He was invited into this teaching post by the school -
His speciality, and award, was after his English degree over here.

escaped

Does anyone remember these little phrase books used for foreign visits?
With stuff like:
I've chopped my finger off.
I've got raging diarrhoea.

Absolutely, plus we now have translation apps on our phones.

Mt61

escaped

Does anyone remember these little phrase books used for foreign visits?
With stuff like:
I've chopped my finger off.
I've got raging diarrhoea.

Absolutely, plus we now have translation apps on our phones.

Actually, it's so different abroad now because everyone wants to practise their English. Even here in France, where they used to look down on tourists speaking English, (and pretended not to understand), they now fall over themselves to practise!