An interpreting service is available free of charge for patients using GP and NHS Hospital Services in England. This includes interpreting for people who are deaf or deaf/blind.
We do not allow children to act as interpreters during your treatment or appointments.
As a practice, we work with Language Empire Services who provide our interpreter services. They offer instant access to telephone interpreting and we can pre-book for face-to-face interpreting for your appointments. They offer interpretation for over 500 spoken languages and interpreting for non-spoken languages such as BSL (British Sign Language), Lipspeaking and Deafblind communication.
Please let the receptionist know at the point of booking an appointment that an interpreter will be needed so we can book the service. This may mean asking a friend or relative who speaks English to inform us. If you are unable to attend a pre-booked appointment, please let us know as soon as possible so we can cancel the interpreter and they are free to assist elsewhere.
We are also lucky enough to work with a very diverse team here at the practice and have some wonderfully talented staff who can speak (though may not be fluent in) Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Russian, French and German! One of our admin team has also learnt BSL.