The Health Service Executive has been urged to provide more funding for interpreters to assist GPs conduct consultations with patients from immigrant communities.
The call came yesterday from Dublin inner city GP Dr Eugene O'Connor, who has up to 500 immigrants from some 30 countries attending his practice.
He said many had little English and some women patients were using their young sons to act as translators when they visited the surgery. This was unacceptable, Dr O'Connor added.
He said an interpreter service was provided but it needed to be better resourced. Seeking an interpreter slows down consultations, adding that the translators employed were constantly changing, which affected continuity of care.
Dr O'Connor was speaking at the publication in Dublin of a booklet for GPs containing basic consultation information translated into Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, French and German. Some 47 questions or phrases, such as "point to where the pain is", are translated into each language to assist GPs treat patients who have little or no English.