18 February 2004
A new phrasebook helping A&E staff communicate with patients who do not speak English has been launched.
The phrasebook has been translated into 36 languages and covers 60 of the most common medical questions and terms. This will help staff make an initial assessment of the patient when they first arrive, while an interpreter is contacted.
The British Red Cross Society produced the phrasebook with advice and funding from the Department of Health.
Health Minister Rosie Winterton said:
"As we are seeing more and more people A&E within four hours, we must ensure they all receive a fair and personal level of care. This phrasebook provides practical support and guidance to staff, improving the quality of information provided to emergency care patients who do not speak English."
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, one of the busiest A&E departments in the country, attended by people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, piloted the phrase book. Bradford’s A&E Modern Matron, Terry Woods, said the phrasebook had proved to be an ‘invaluable communication tool for staff working in the A&E department’.
The 36 languages covered in the phrasebook are Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Chinese, Czech, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Lingala, Macedonian, Pashto, Polish, Portugese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh.
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