The cost of interpreters

[NorthernStar]

Interpreters play an important role and where necessary I don't object to public organisations using them, but why the hell do they cost so much, I'd be accusing someone in charge of this area some uncomfortable questions if I was tasked with looking after such a budget.

[ECCOnoob]

Interpreters play an important role and where necessary I don't object to public organisations using them, but why the hell do they cost so much, I'd be accusing someone in charge of this area some uncomfortable questions if I was tasked with looking after such a budget.

 

Same as everything else. Its a skill that they have but you dont.

 

Its hardly extortionate is it. There are plenty of "consultants" "specialists" "professionals" "trades" which charge 4, 5 or 6 times the hourly rate for your average translator.

 

Asking a question like that is like asking how long is a piece of sting. Why do pumbers charge so much just for fixing a simple dripping tap? Why does childcare charge so much, after all anyone can do it?... the list could be endless.

 

Its a skill in demand which gets whatever rate it calls. If available and suitable interpreters were everywhere the rates would be less. As it is, many so called "interpreters" are not suitable and can speak hardly any more or less English that the person who required it. That was a problem I faced reguarly back in my legal aid days. Relatives who claimed they could interpret had a crack and after a long frustrating hour I would have to terminate the meeting and get in a professional and independant one to get the information I needed.

 

Lets not forget that like everything else translation is a professsion. The interpreters are doing that job for a living and it has to be paid for appropriately.

[3nicky1]

Not an answer to the original question but to the people who have suggested using family members - no medical professional in their right mind would use a family member to interpret for the patient. Interpreting is perhaps the wrong word as an interpretor should tell you (and the patient) EXACTLY what you or they are saying, they aren't medically trained and shouldn't be attempting to 'interpret' what the person is saying. Even good, objective and well trained interpretors do get this wrong and in a medical situation it is important not to get this wrong. Family members are far far worse for telling you what they think the patient is saying (and presumably the other way around).

 

Also in some cultures certain things are considered so shameful it is not at all unknown for family and friends to tell you direct lies instead of telling you what the patient has said. Hence all the hospitals in Sheffield have a strict policy of using professionals rather than family even if this is via language line.

[trackrunner]

Sheffield hospitals do allow family members and friends to interpret. At least they did two weeks ago when I was making appointments there.

[jake]

This country is a joke because of all the do gooders

 

You're right - We need more Do Badders.

[Rupert_Baehr]

Apart from the problem of informed consent to treatment with a family member interpreting, a lot of non English speaking patients only have children to interpret for them. This means bringing them out of school. So unfortunately it's not as easy as that. Right or wrong, it is cheaper to pay for an interpreter, than have a law suit on your hands when the patient claims wrong doing.

 

So why doesn't the patient pay for an interpreter? If you are aware that you need an interpreter (and arguably, you would be the best arbiter of that) then you are being negligent if you don't bother to hire an interpreter.

 

Why should a doctor (or, in the UK the NHS) be held liable because the patient is wilfully negligent?

 

Then don't travel to lands where you aren't fluent in the language. Seems pretty basic stuff to me.

 

Or alternatively, (if you think you are going to need one) why not confirm (before you go) that your travel/health insurance covers the cost of an interpreter? - It's hardly 'rocket science'.

 

With that attitude I assume then that when you go abroad on holiday you expected to be treated the same.

 

Dont speak Spanish or French or whatever? Oh that's just tough.....

I dont think you would accept that would you.

 

I have had the misfortune of becoming ill whilst abroad and spent nearly a week in hospital. I was in enough of a state as it was. How the hell do you think I would have felt if I had to go through a week of treatment and observations on my very limited french knowledge.

 

I always love it when people kick off about interpreters and yet we as a nation have the most appauling lack of foreign language skills and have the neve to automatically expect English language to be used when we go abroad.

 

Talk about hypocracy.

 

When you go on holiday abroad, you can reasonably expected to be treated in the same manner as the locals are treated - Not necessarily in the same manner you would be treated at home.

 

If the Doctor/nurse treating you has a different mother tongue to your own and you decline to engage an interpreter, then it's up to you which language you work in. - There are arguments for and against using your mother tongue and for and against using that of the doctor. You'll just have to make up your own mind.

 

Or hire an interpreter.

 

If you go into a local government office here and you need an interpreter, they will give you a list of interpreters. You want an interpreter? - Fine. You pay for an interpreter.

[the_bloke]

With that attitude I assume then that when you go abroad on holiday you expected to be treated the same.

 

Dont speak Spanish or French or whatever? Oh that's just tough.....

I dont think you would accept that would you.

 

I have had the misfortune of becoming ill whilst abroad and spent nearly a week in hospital. I was in enough of a state as it was. How the hell do you think I would have felt if I had to go through a week of treatment and observations on my very limited french knowledge.

 

I always love it when people kick off about interpreters and yet we as a nation have the most appauling lack of foreign language skills and have the neve to automatically expect English language to be used when we go abroad.

 

Talk about hypocracy.

 

A holiday is one thing; the E111\EHIC will cover the costs of your care if you need it, but that's only for the duration of your stay. If you live there, things are very different.

 

Ex pats in Spain for example, are not provided with free interpreters. We seem to be the only Western Europe country where you can demand a free interpreter if you live here but are incapable of speaking the language to understand important medical information.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/expathealth/7499053/Expat-guide-to-Spain-health-care.html

 

Free interpreters is not some blanket wide EU policy by Brussels, it's something isolated to the UK. Sheffield NHS seems in a minority by having face to face interpreters only in exceptional circumstances. Tower Hamlets by contrast fall over themselves to have someone face to face just for mundane tasks like making a doctors appointment - so well done Sheffield for some common sense!

 

If you wanted the full on expensive experience, then try being a non English/French/Spanish speaker needing emergency care in the US.

[CorkerSWFC]

People who move here should be made to speak English in so many years, if they can't to a police officer then they should go on trial to see if there fit to live here as not speaking English can hold many boundaries.

[Bounce]

At the Hallamshire Hospital I was stood behind a oriental women who wanted to change her appointment. She did not seem very pleased that she could not get the time and date she wanted. The receptionist tried to reason with her and explained that there was not a clinic on the date she wanted. The women understood perfectly well what the receptionist was saying. On her way out she asked the receptionist if she could arrange for a Cantonese interpreter. I was not convinced that she needed one. I was told that these interpreters cost the national health millions of pounds a year and that the Hallamshire Hospital would have to pay about £500 for a interpreter for this woman. Does anyone know the cost of these interpreters and should the money be paid for by the NHS? I have also been told by a friend who works as a receptionist at a doctor's practice that interpreters are paid for out of their budget and very often the patient does not turn up but the interpreters have to be paid for.

 

Why don't English people in Spain speak Spanish? Why do they insist on being spoken to in English by Spanish medical staff? Why do they put a strain on the Spanish health service by getting so drunk that they put themselves and others around them in danger? It's not just Spain by the way it's the same wherever the English go.

[CorkerSWFC]

Why don't English people in Spain speak Spanish? Why do they insist on being spoken to in English by Spanish medical staff? Why do they put a strain on the Spanish health service by getting so drunk that they put themselves and others around them in danger? It's not just Spain by the way it's the same wherever the English go.

 

The problem in Britain is we are letting all and sundry live here and they can't speak English, it's not right the place is tiny as it is compared to most, goodness knows whats going to happen when the EU law changes and the Romanians invade us, the king of pick pockets and thieves.