Interpreter services in an inner city teaching hospital: a 6-year experience.
BACKGROUND
Being able to communicate effectively with patients is essential not only from a medicolegal standpoint but more importantly from clinical governance perspectives. Issues such as informed consent and patient choice within the NHS are currently being highlighted; for these to be available to patients, their language requirements are paramount.


METHODS
An audit was performed by the Linkworkers office at the Central Manchester & Manchester Children's Hospital NHS (CMMC) Trust on the total number of attendances and refusals per language in the period 1998-2003.


RESULTS
In the CMMC Trust, Urdu/Punjabi, Bengali, Cantonese, Somali, Arabic and French represent the majority of the workload, comprising almost 80% of cases in 2003. In the same year, an increase in demand for languages of Eastern European countries became evident. Finding interpreters for these languages even via agencies can be extremely difficult.


CONCLUSIONS
If the current trend continues, requirement for these services will increase exponentially. For this demand to be met adequately these issues must be kept at the forefront of NHS planning.
Khwaja
Nadeem
N
Central Manchester & Manchester Children's Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester, UK.
Sharma
Saroj
S
Wong
Julian
J
Murray
David
D
Ghosh
Jonathan
J
Murphy
Michael O
MO
Halka
Anastassi T
AT
Walker
Michael G
MG
D003144:Communication Barriers; D004739:England; D005006:Ethnicity; D006760:Hospitalization; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008330:Management Audit / Q000379:methods; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014175:Translating; D014504:Urban Health