Two news articles published in the last couple of weeks caught our attention and we wanted to discuss with our followers about Professional Translation as Language Support.
The first was published on BBC News on November 21st and discusses an investigation into how NHS interpreting services have contributed to patient deaths in Bristol. The second was published by Congleton Nub News on November 21st and explains how Cheshire East Council are looking into a multi-language register following the death of a vulnerable Slovakian man.
Interpreters are expensive. It’s a highly skilled profession and if you’re good at your job then you’re in very high demand, meaning interpreters aren’t necessarily available at a click of a button. One issue highlighted by the first article about how the NHS uses language services is that because of a lack of interpreters being available to support patients in the moment, NHS workers fall back on machine translation which leads to misinformation and complete confusion for the patient and staff alike.
The Congleton Nub News article cites the fact that any communication with the vulnerable Slovakian victim was sent in English, which again, resulted in confusion and misunderstanding. Unlike interpreting, translation is relatively inexpensive and writing a safeguarding letter in Slovak would certainly not pose any issue to a council’s budget.
The article states that “This case review has highlighted emerging themes around self-neglect, particularly for someone who could not speak English, had physical and mental health conditions, and was not provided with information or translation services in a timely or consistent fashion by all services, which led to missed appointments and access to treatment.” In this day and age, there is simply no excuse for this sort of misinformation or lack of care to happen.
Here are the links for the news articles in question:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-66605536
Active Languages works with the translators’ version of Médecins sans Frontières and Active Languages has worked on a pro bono basis for charities and associations.
If you have any questions or need any language support to stop these issues arising then please contact us.
Language is a gift, let’s use it to help those in need.
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