Hospital translators cost £30,000

Translation services are costing the NHS hospital trust in Lincolnshire thousands of pounds.

More than £30,000 has been spent by United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust on translation services in various languages in the past four years.

The hospital trust said family members were called upon to translate where necessary in the first instance.

Otherwise, a translation firm was used to translate either over the telephone or face to face.

So far this year, the trust has already spent more than £7,000 on the service for all departments from maternity to accident and emergency.

The trust has needed translators for Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese and Russian patients, among others, at its hospitals.