Over 20 years ago in what seems another world I used to make use of a government translating service with many immigrant patients. And then they started to charge. I can’t remember what the rate was, but it wasn’t cheap. I had to stop using the service and it led to some unsatisfactory exchanges with patients with a poor understanding of English.

The fees now charged by the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) vary. Telephone interpreting comes in at a mere $23.10. Each fifteen minutes.

So I was delighted to read in my Auspharm e-news that a pilot program had resulted in all pharmacies across Australia obtaining access to free telephone interpreting services through TIS 24hours a day, seven days a week.

These free services are now available for:

* private medical practitioners providing Medicare-rebateable services and their reception staff to arrange appointments and provide results of medical tests
* non-profit, non-government, community-based organisations for case work and emergency services where the organisation does not receive funding to provide these services
* Members of Parliament for constituency purposes
* local government authorities to communicate with non-English speaking residents on issues such as rates, garbage collection and urban services
* trade unions to respond to members’ enquiries or requests
* Emergency Management Australia
* pharmacies for the purpose of dispensing Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medications.

Warwick Plunkett, President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) is quoted as saying: “Such information is a critical aspect to good health care and the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia sees this service as an innovative tool which will not only educate non-English speaking Australians about their medicines but give them confidence about the medicines they are taking.”

So Warwick has released a statement, the information is updated on the TIS website, but PSA is still yet to put out an official press release advising members of a valuable service. I wonder whose idea it was for the pilot project. Did PSA see it as a need for its pharmacist members to assist those with poor English skills? I only ask as I consider my professional body to be inward looking and not proactive.

I assume the impetus came from TIS as the Pharmacy Guild has not been trumpeting another success for community (retail) pharmacy

If PSA had been involved perhaps it could have extended the availability of this service to accredited pharmacists doing medication reviews in peoples homes. Not all these pharmacists are employed by a pharmacy.

However TIS does not include any indigenous languages. This sort of support is very unstructured in Australia for indigenous languages. Royal Darwin Hospital runs an innovative program while other hospitals rely on a third party providers such as a remote aboriginal health service.

The Royal Perth Hospital GP Handbook states:

To overcome the communication barrier and provide equal access to all its patients Royal Perth Hospital has established a Language Services Unit which provides professional interpreting services in over 75 languages including Auslan (Australian Sign language for the Deaf) and some major Aboriginal dialects spoken in WA. Services are provided by on-site attendance or over the telephone.

Unfortunately, in my one encounter with them wishing to use their services I found that they go north to the Kimberley for indigenous language translation. Unfortunately the languages of the Kimberley are not spoken all over the state of WA! It ended with me passing basic words and phrases to the ward pharmacist who placed them up around the elderly gentleman’s bed so his basic requests could be understood.

The Patient Assistance Travel Scheme (PATS) is an essential service in helping to pay the costs of remote Australians seeking medical attention in the cities. However the costs in getting people there and back, particularly by road are not covered adequately as a recent Senate Committee discovered. This little vignette about travelling in from a remote community sums up some of the problems.

One large problem with the PATS scheme is that while it allows for an escort for children, it does not allow an escort for the frail elderly, confused or non-English speaker. Consider an elderly Aboriginal person with very limited English who is very ill and being evacuated by the RFDS. he may be asked to sign for procedures that he does not understand. He may need to talk to someone within his kinship system almost for authority to have the procedure done. Surely the benefits an escort with a better understanding of English could provide far outweigh the cost of a fare and accommodation.

I have not even touched on the belief systems and how we need to work within them with our biomedical health model in a spiritual and visual world. I don’t think I am qualified to make comments and my aboriginal friends might think my thoughts are hilarious! I do recommend a book by Father Anthony Rex Peile titled “Body and Soul – An Aborigiinal View” by Hesperian Press where he writes of the concepts of health of the Kukatja people from the Balgo region of Western Australia

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Tagged as: aboriginal, culture, health, hospital, Indigenous, language, PATS