Equality of Opportunity Committee

Inquiry into Migrant Workers

Response from Ymddiriedolaeth GIG Gogledd Ddwyrain Cymru/North East Wales NHS Trust

Dear Sir

Thank you for giving us opportunity to submit comments to the enquiry on migrant workers. Although we are not in a position to comment on many of the areas under examination, from a health perspective we would like to highlight a couple of issues which can inhibit the provision of an equitable service to migrant families which have arisen in relation to Speech and Language Therapy.

With young children it can be difficult to diagnose a speech and language disorder from the difficulties in acquiring a second language and as a result there may be delays in identifying problems and a referral being made for Speech and Language Therapy. This situation may manifest itself with an increasing number of referrals of older children from the migrant population.

A targeted prevention focus, as is currently provided in SureStart areas, would be beneficial in addressing this issue.

A difficulty common across much of the health sector is that of obtaining access to suitably precise and accurate translation services that are able to cope with clinical terminology. This applies both within the immediate clinical setting during consultations and treatment and in communicating with health professionals in a migrant’s home country about their past care.

Again the potential risks were acutely highlighted by a recent situation with our Speech and Language Therapy service who have recently been working with a Portuguese family who spoke no English or Welsh and who had a severely disabled child with swallowing and feeding difficulties. The posture of the child and the consistency and choice of suitable food and liquid were important messages and it was essential to know that the translator was competent to relate this information accurately as in these cases misunderstandings could potentially result in harm or death to the patient.

Finally there is also an increasing issue about the cost of employing translation services, especially in cases where patients will require a long term period of support or treatment.

I hope that these comments are of some interest; please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss these points further

Yours faithfully

Andy Scotson

Corporate Support Manager