British residents and tourists in highest take-up for doctor’s translation service

Costa Almería News, 25 | 02 | 2011 - Noticia

More than half the foreign patients using the free translation service for a public health service line in Almería asked for English to be spoken, figures released this week reveal.

The Salud Responde - health response - telephone service, which was started by the Junta de Andalucia in 2004, saw 688 foreigners in the province attended to by doctors in their own language in 2010, with 53 per cent of these opting to have an English translator.

The statistics revealed that of these 364 people, most were British expat residents, although during the summer season more English-speaking tourists used the service, which offers medical attention in 64 foreign languages in all for non-Spanish speakers.

Second in demand was Arabic for the translation service, which operates everyday of the week, 24-hours a day and enables patients to book an appointment or discuss their health symptoms with a GP and get a diagnosis for their complaint over the phone.

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