Cost of NHS translation for patients has trebled

MONEY spent on translation and interpretation services by NHS Tayside has more than trebled in five years.

The health board spent £643,000 on interpreting and translating costs in the first 10 months of 2016/17.

If spending continues at the same rate for the final two months of the year, costs will exceed £770,000 — almost £200,000 more than the previous financial year, when £573,514 was spent.

In 2013/14, the costs sat at just £195,219, less than a third of what has already been spent in 2016/17.

Dundee City Council is the body that supplies the majority of translation or interpreter services for NHS Tayside, including more than 90% of all costs in each of the past five years, to the health board.

The council’s health spokesman Ken Lynn, who is a non-executive member of the NHS Tayside board, said he felt immigration had played a factor in the increase.

He said: “The population of Dundee has increased by around 6,000 in the past 10 years. I’d imagine quite a few of those people will be from non-English speaking countries.

“Many of these people will already have some English skills but perhaps can’t articulate fully what may be wrong with them, if they were to go for medical treatment, and will require translation services.”

An NHS Tayside spokeswoman said: “NHS Tayside is committed to 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. This includes British Sign Language (BSL).

“Interpreters are provided through Dundee Translating and Interpreting Service (DTIS) as i ndependent contractors.

“Over the past two years, we have seen the number of requests made for an interpreter double, approximately a quarter of which are for patients who communicate in BSL.

“This is due to the extensive work that NHS Tayside has undertaken in raising the importance of interpreting services and ensuring that interpreters are available when patients require them.

“We are in the process of reviewing the interpretation and translation services contract currently outsourced to DTIS. This will allow us to consider other options in how we deliver and manage interpretation and translation services in the future.”