RACGP Standards for general practices 4th edition
Criterion 1.2.3 Interpreter and other communication services
Our practice provides for the communication needs of patients who are not proficient in the primary language of our clinical team and/or who have a communication impairment.
Indicators
► A. Our clinical team can describe how they communicate with patients who do not speak the primary language of our staff or who have a communication impairment.
► B. Our practice has a list of contact details for interpreter and other communication services including the Translating and Interpreter Service.
Explanation
Key points
- GPs have a professional obligation to understand their patients’ problems
- Patients have a right to understand the information provided by GPs and their recommendations
- Practices need to know how to access interpreter services.
Interpreting services for GPs
The Australian Government provides free telephone interpreting services for GPs:
- The Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS)
- Doctors Priority Line (available 24 hours a day, seven days a week)
- On site interpreting service (subject to interpreter availability).
Information on these services and a medical practitioners free interpreting registration form are available at www.immi.gov.au/tis or by calling 131 450.
Friends and relatives as Interpreters
Qualified medical interpreters should be the interpretation medium of choice.
The use of patients’ relatives and friends as interpreters is common. This is acceptable if it is an expressed wish of the patient and the problem is minor. However, further consideration should be given to the following:
- whether friends and relatives will put their own interpretation into the translated communication
- the use of friends and relatives in sensitive clinical situations or where serious decisions have to be made may be hazardous
- the use of children as interpreters is not encouraged.
Translating services
The HealthInsite website at www.healthinsite.gov.au provides helpful educational material for patients on a range of clinical conditions in a variety of languages.
Some websites offer free translation of brief information. To protect patient confidentiality, practices should ensure that no identifying information is revealed.
A list of websites providing translation services is available at www.word2word.com/free.html.
Patients with special needs
A free AUSLAN service for patients who are deaf is available at www.nabs.org.au. Information about communicating with a person with impaired communication is available at www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au.
Information about communicating with a person with an intellectual disability is available at www.cddh.monash.org/assets/documents/working-with-people-with-intellectual-disabilities-in-health-care.pdf.