NHS trusts in Nottinghamshire have spent more than £2.5million on interpreting and translation services over the last three years. Between 2019 and 2022, Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH), Sherwood Forest Hospitals (SFH) and Nottinghamshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (NHFT) forked out a combined £2,566,301, according to data obtained by the TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) pressure group.
NHS Nottinghamshire said it serves a diverse population of more than 1.2 million people. NHS service providers have an obligation to ensure interpreting and translation services are provided to their patients free at the point of delivery.
This can be provided face-to-face, over the phone or via other means like video conference. The TPA said, however, that this can result in "exorbitant" costs due to the large range of languages that must be catered for, including some that are spoken more rarely.
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NUH, which runs Queen's Medical Centre and City Hospital, offers 56 languages and dialects, ranging from French and Arabic to Bosnian and Wolof. The hospital spent £1.185m on its translation services in the last three years, slightly less than NHFT (£1.257m), which offers 49 languages and dialects.
SFH, which operates King's Mill, Newark and Mansfield community hospitals, spent significantly less over the period. It paid £124,301 for its provision of 36 languages and dialects.
An NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire spokesperson said: “The local NHS serves a diverse population of more than 1.2 million people across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. We provide translation services to ensure that quality care is accessible to everyone.
"This includes using translation services and British Sign Language interpreters to eliminate communication barriers which improves patient experience and, ultimately, leads to improved patient outcomes for all patients who attend our hospitals." NHS trusts across the UK spent a total of £113,974,561.40 across the three-year period, according to the TPA.
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