New Translation Program Set To Drive Down NHS Interpreting Costs

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 14 Jan 2009 - 0:00 PST

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According to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, health service trusts are being hit by soaring translation costs totalling £50 million a year. One in six of the 200 trusts who released the data said their annual bill for interpreters had more than doubled in the last year.

SignTranslate, a company owned by SignHealth, the healthcare charity for Deaf people, is launching SignTranslate Hospital, a new web-based translation program to help hospital staff to communicate with patients who are non-English speaking or Deaf.

The program translates pre-defined medical questions from English into twelve foreign languages including Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, and Polish. The translated questions are displayed in written and spoken format, so that the non-English speaking patient need not be literate to understand the question. The questions are also translated into British Sign Language (BSL) using short video clips. For more in-depth consultations, a Deaf person and clinician can use the SignTranslate program to access a 'live' fully qualified BSL interpreter via a web-cam.

SignTranslate Hospital has been developed with advice from some of the country's leading hospitals, and was recently awarded the e-Health Insider ICT product innovation award sponsored by BT. The program provides a library of questions supporting A & E, Audiology, Maternity, and general ward care. There is also a special application for Major Incidents e.g. industrial chemical spillages or serious traffic accidents.

Phil Murden, Managing Director of SignTranslate, said: "NHS trusts have a duty to produce a race equality scheme under the Race Relations Act as well as address the Disability Discrimination Act to ensure equality of access to information and the trust's services. Translators are a scarce resource especially BSL interpreters, which means short-notice, emergency appointments are often a problem. SignTranslate offers a quick and cost effective means of improving communication during a hospital visit, when an interpreter is not available."

The GP version of the program, endorsed by the Department of Health, is already being used successfully by practices throughout England and is proving invaluable for short notice unsupported appointments.

Visit http://www.signtranslate.com to see a demonstration of the programs.

Notes

Please note; it is the convention adopted within the Deaf community of using an upper case D when referring to those who identify themselves culturally and linguistically as members of the Deaf community. Typically they are pre lingually deaf and use British Sign Language (BSL) as their first language

SignHealth is the only UK charity focussed on improving the mental and physical health of Deaf people. SignHealth already has a track record of delivering change in care and treatment and in providing supported living, advocacy, outreach, counselling and health promotion, all within a BSL supported environment. Projects are located in London, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. SignHealth also works with service providers to improve health services for Deaf people and with other health and Deaf charities to provide health information and education. http://www.signhealth.org.uk

SignTranslate is wholly owned by SignHealth, the healthcare charity for Deaf people. SignTranslate provides unique web-based translation programs for use with Deaf and hard of hearing people and those with limited English. SignTranslate also offers on-line interpreting for Deaf people via a simple web-cam. All interpreters are fully qualified and registered and follow a strict code of practice.

SignTranslate