title: Interpreter services in an inner city teaching hospital: a 6-year experience.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Central Manchester & Manchester Children's Hospital NHS Trust, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: Nadeem
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Khwaja
authors.forename: Saroj
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Julian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murray
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: Michael O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Anastassi T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Halka
authors.forename: Michael G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Walker
mesh_terms: 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