Healthcare Translation and Interpreting

Healthcare sector

Medical translation and healthcare interpreting for NHS and private care

When a patient and a clinician do not share a language, appointments take longer and the risks go up. A history gets taken through a patient's teenage son, or a consent form is signed without being understood. Our healthcare interpreters support communication between patients with limited English and their doctors, nurses, laboratory staff and other healthcare professionals, and we choose the best medical translators and interpreters for each assignment so that the service can always be relied on.

The aim is simple: patients who do not speak English should get the same quality of care as patients who do. We help reduce the inequalities in access to healthcare, and in the care itself, between the two, and our clients include the NHS.

Why a professional interpreter, not a relative

NHS England's guidance on interpreting in primary care says patients should not be asked to bring their own interpreter, advises against using family and friends, and says children should not interpret except in an emergency. There are good reasons for that. A relative may not know the medical words in either language. They may leave things out to protect the patient, or to protect themselves. And the patient may not want their family to hear about their sexual health, their mental health or what is happening at home.

Consent is part of it too. Since the Supreme Court's decision in Montgomery in 2015, what matters is what this patient understood about the risks and the alternatives, and that is hard to show when the only interpreter in the room was a family member.

Where our healthcare interpreters work

Our interpreters work in many healthcare settings across the UK and the world, including:

• Hospitals and outpatient clinics
• GP surgeries
• Maternity and antenatal appointments
• Mental health appointments
• Counselling and therapy centres
• Private practices
• Rehabilitation centres
• Nursing homes

A face-to-face interpreter is the right choice for physical examinations, long appointments and anything emotionally difficult. For a short follow-up or a quick query, telephone interpreting is faster to arrange, and video interpreting suits clinics that already consult remotely. More detail is on our medical interpreting page.

Difficult conversations

Some appointments are hard for everyone in the room: a cancer diagnosis, a miscarriage, a safeguarding meeting, a conversation about end-of-life care. Our medical interpreters and translators can work in emotionally intense situations when required. A good interpreter keeps their own reactions out of it, speaks in the first person and interprets everything, including the parts that are hard to hear.

If you know a conversation will be difficult, say so when you book, and give the interpreter a few minutes' briefing before you go in. For counselling and therapy, ask for the same interpreter at every session. Clients build trust with the interpreter as well as the therapist, and a new face each week can set the work back.

Medical translation

Our translators make sure every detail is retained and the integrity of each document is preserved. That matters most where a mistake can hurt someone: a dose, an allergy, an instruction on a discharge letter. We translate:

• Patient information leaflets
• Appointment and discharge letters
• Consent forms
• Care plans and assessments
• Medical records from overseas
• Test results and reports
• Vaccination records
• Medication instructions

Records from abroad are often handwritten, full of local abbreviations and drug brand names that are not sold in the UK. A good medical translator flags anything they cannot confirm rather than guessing. For clinical trial documents, regulatory submissions and research papers, see our page on life sciences translation.

Equality, compliance and the Accessible Information Standard

NHS bodies are covered by the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010, and CQC looks at whether services meet people's communication needs. The Accessible Information Standard is narrower than many people think. It covers needs that come from a disability, such as a Deaf patient who needs a British Sign Language interpreter (ask for one registered with the NRCPD), but it does not cover spoken languages. Those fall under the NHS's wider duties, and the principle is the same: a patient has to be able to understand their own care.

Languages we cover

Demand follows the local population. At the 2021 Census the most common main languages in England and Wales after English were Polish (611,845 people), Romanian (471,954), Punjabi (290,745) and Urdu (269,849). Local figures tell a different story. Tower Hamlets has more Bengali speakers than any other local authority, and many of them speak Sylheti, so ask for the dialect rather than just the language. Leicester has more Gujarati speakers than any other local authority.

We cover more than 350 languages and dialects, including Arabic, Portuguese, Somali, Tigrinya, Farsi and Ukrainian. The full list is on our languages page.

Questions from healthcare teams

Who pays for an interpreter in NHS care?

The service does. In NHS care, patients should not be asked to pay for an interpreter or to bring their own. Private clinics set their own arrangements.

Can you provide an interpreter at short notice?

We take bookings 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it is always worth asking. If nobody can get there in time, telephone or video interpreting can often cover the appointment.

Can we have the same interpreter for a course of treatment?

Ask when you book. Continuity helps with therapy, maternity care and long-term conditions, and it saves the patient telling their story again.