Improving the
quality of interpreting in primary care
We
are reviewing how patients who are Deaf or do not speak English as a first
language, use interpreting services so they can access the best care and
information. To achieve this, we will engage with those patients so we can
articulate what a good quality service looks like.
North
of England Commissioning Support (NECS) with support from University of
Manchester SORD – Social Research with Deaf people) and Education Partnerships
UK/Trescom (for community/spoken languages) will, with NHS England, facilitate
the co-production of a set of principles with patients and clinicians which,
when implemented will help to ensure that we reduce health inequalities in
primary care settings.
Project initiation document
Briefings
Our
regular briefings are below, to update anyone interested in the work.
Emerging themes
From
a wide study of reports on quality interpreting, and from the focus groups we
have carried out, some of the emerging themes we have found are below:
- Seamless services – a need for a streamlined, easy to access, flexible and cost-effective ITS
- Knowing how to use – a need for more clarity on how the ITS provision works and how to book assignments
- Principles – need to address issues such as:
- Confidentiality in the client – interpreter relationship
- Understanding by the interpreter of the confidential relationship between client and patient
- Understanding the ethics and standards of the health sector
- Use of qualified interpreters rather than members of family and friends
- Professional qualifications for interpreters, sector-specific training, continuous professional training /continuous professional development
- Contracting arrangements – a need for contracts/service level agreements with providers to explicitly describe sub-contracting arrangements, payment schedules, management fees and fair rates of pay for interpreters
- Training – a need for awareness and training for professional, practice staff and clinician on the ITS
- Training on health benefits – overall a need for improved awareness of the potential impact on the patient’s health if ITS is not used as necessary
The
themes have been used to develop a draft Principles Framework for Interpreting and Translation
Services.
The
draft Principles Framework will be used to develop service specifications and
commission models for delivering quality interpreting services. It is currently
in draft and being shared with the stakeholder and steering group for the
project.
Further information
For
additional information, including past bulletins on the project, or enquires
please contact interpreting@nhs.net.
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