English-speaking? Get to back of the NHS queue! Hospital sees patients who need a translator first - and Britons second
English-speaking patients are being pushed to the back of the queue in waiting rooms at NHS hospitals in favour of patients who need an interpreter, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
English-speaking patients are being pushed to the back of the queue in waiting rooms at NHS hospitals in favour of patients who need an interpreter, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Imperial College Healthcare, an NHS Trust with five hospitals across north-west London, prioritises patients who have been assigned an interpreter.
The trusts aim is to avoid additional charges from the interpreting service.
It is unclear whether NHS trusts nationwide take this approach, but last night it sparked a row, with Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick claiming the approach lets down British NHS patients.
The former immigration minister told The Mail on Sunday: Brits are already waiting too long for treatment. The last thing they should be subjected to is the indignity of being pushed to the back of the queue.
Hammersmith hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare. The NHS Trust is pushing English-speaking patients to the back of the queue, and prioritising those that need an interpreter to avoid additional charges
Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick claimed the policy lets down British NHS patients
This is yet more evidence of the pressure mass migration places on our public services and the difficulties integrating such unprecedented numbers.
Non-English speakers shouldnt be given a queue pass.
Imperials policy dictates that if there is a delay in a clinic and they have pre-booked an interpreter for a patient, nurses will see that patient as close as possible to the original appointment time so that the trust does not incur additional costs from the interpreting service for the waiting time. The result is that English speakers can find their queue position is deliberately overlooked.
The maternity service at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital in west London operates the policy in their antenatal clinics.
Some waiting areas operate a formal numbered ticketing system, but even this is overridden by the trusts interpreter policy.
One patient told the MoS: Its a clinic, so you go in expecting to wait a while, but when someone behind me in the queue was let into see the doctor before me I asked the receptionist why and was told that the people with interpreters are prioritised because they cant wait for more than an hour.
The maternity service at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital in west London operates the policy in their antenatal clinics (file photo)
Television doctor Sarah Jarvis said: I do understand the rationale in terms of reducing costs to the NHS. I would much prefer vulnerable patients to be prioritised.
This is not prioritising on the basis of clinical need, which is what doctors believe in.
An NHS doctor, Catja Schmitgen, previously told the Mail that translation-related delays have become a major issue, especially in urban areas. She said consultations with non-English speakers took twice as long because information had to be spelt out or relayed through translators and as a result there was less time for other patients.
Last night a spokesman for the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: We are committed to responding to the specific needs raised by any of our patients – and every patient has the right to a professional interpreter.
