18 May 2017
Dundee patients with little grasp of English ‘lack trust’ of NHS
interpreter service
Patients
in Dundee with little grasp of English are relying on friends and family to
translate medical issues to GPs.
It is claimed such is the lack of trust in
the interpreter service offered by NHS Tayside, “low level” English
speaking patients routinely ask friends and families to communicate for
them at medical appointments.
In one case, it is said one woman attended
her doctor surgery with her five-year-old grandchild who arranged with the GP
in question for medicine to be prescribed.
Patients also periodically turn up to
appointments to discover an interpreter fluent in an alternative language has
been booked, it is claimed.
Caroline Mckenna, from Dundee International
Women’s Centre, believes the current interpreter provision service is
“fundamentally flawed”.
The claims follow similar complaints from
members of Tayside Deaf Forum, who accused NHS Tayside of providing an
unreliable interpreter service to deaf people.
Caroline said: “We have more than 100 women
who attend our centre weekly and our staff struggled to find anyone who even
uses the NHS service now. It really is a poor situation.
“Interpreters themselves have expressed their
disappointment.
“It actually wouldn’t take much to get it
right. It is really frustrating.”
A spokesman for NHS Tayside said: “NHS
Tayside is committed to the obligations and responsibilities under the Equality
Act 2010 part of which is to ensure that we provide an interpretation service
for patients where English isn’t their first language.
“We are still in the process of reviewing
interpretation and translation services to allow us to consider how we deliver
and manage interpretation and translation services in the future.”
