31 March 2009

NHSG/31/09

NHS Interpreters for Moray and North Aberdeenshire

NHS Grampian has greatly expanded its interpretation service for patients in Moray and North Aberdeenshire.

A total of 33 people have now attained their Certificate of Bilingual Competency, with the support of NHS Grampian, and can be called on to provide face-to-face interpretation for patients in a hospital, or GP practice.  The new recruits, including 12 Polish speakers, bring the number of interpreters available to NHS Grampian to 120.

"Understanding information and advice about your health is vital and we are continuing to invest in helping improve communication for people whose first language isn't English, as part of our work to address health inequalities," says Nigel Firth, NHS Grampian Equality & Diversity Manager.

"We had an excellent response to our recruitment drive for more face-to-face interpreters and our increased team is a great asset - there are 82 languages, as well as English, being used in the North East.  We also provide immediate translation by phone, to help healthcare staff communicate with patients."

Noor Mohd-Nor, of the Grampian Racial Equality Council: "This is one of the largest numbers successfully recruited at one time after a thorough written and oral assessment.  The new recruits speak a range of 17 different languages and have, additionally, outstanding academic backgrounds and experience.  This is a very encouraging development for interpreters in the Northeast region.  It must also be added that this is indeed a very significant contribution from NHS Grampian to cater for the needs of the  patients from multi-cultural and multi-lingual backgrounds and that this model should be adopted by other service providers too."

ENDS

For further NHS information, please contact NHS Grampian Corporate Communications, on 01224 554400.

Grampian Racial Equality Council: Tel: 01224 595505, email: info@grec.co.uk

Noor Mohd-Nor, Interpreting and Translation Coordinator, tel: 01224 576791

Press Release: NHS Interpreters for Moray and North Aberdeenshire (pdf)