SOUTHEND Hospital spent almost £100,000 on interpreters for foreign nationals, and the deaf and blind, in just two years - as it was revealed the hospital deals with patients who speak 25 differing languages.

In 2013/14 the hospital forked out £43,783 on interpreters and translators - and in 2014/15 that cost had risen to £53,149.

Southend Hospital began recording which languages it used interpreters for in 2013.

It currently deals with patients who speak 25 differing languages, providing interpreters to communicate with patients and translators to deal with written material.

British Sign Language accounts for a large part of the translation costs but James Moyies, councillor responsible for health and adult social care said rising immigration and health tourism had also put a strain on services.

He said: “I am surprised it isn’t more. We have to employ translators.

“You can’t treat people in hospitals without being able to communicate with them.

“Immigration is too high.

“We haven’t got the infrastructure or resources to support that. A lot of people come in who don’t speak English.

“I think you should have a basic understanding of the language of the country you want to live in.

“Health tourism is also a problem. Hospitals should be able to recoup the cost of translators and the healthcare they provide to people from overseas. Unfortunately they only manage to get back a small percentage.

Denise Townsend, associate director of governance at Southend Hospital, said the majority of costs were for the deaf and deafblind.

She said: “The trust uses a number of translation and interpreting services for patients visiting the hospital who either do not speak English as a first language or have enhanced communication needs.

“These services are vital in allowing us to communicate effectively with all patients coming to Southend and enabling us to provide safe and timely care and treatment.”

Ms Townsend added: “In response to patient feedback, we also provide translations of our core patient information leaflets in Polish, Czech, Bengali and Cantonese. In clinical areas we display multi-language signs about translation services available to assist patients who may require language translation.”

anch IN 2012, an investigation by think tank 2020Health revealed the NHS was spending £64,000 a day on translation services - more than £23million a year. That figure is likely to have risen significantly since then.

Some trusts translated material into 120 languages.

Julia Manning, of 2020Health, the think-tank that conducted the research, said: ‘The costs involved are truly staggering in an age of austerity, and incredible when taken in the context of efficiency savings of £20billion across the Health Service.

So called health tourists, those who come to the UK specifically to use the NHS, are said to cost the country’s hospitals between £110 million and £280 million a year.

Normal use of the NHS—by foreign visitors who've ended up being treated while in England—is estimated to cost about £1.8 billion a year.

Only about £500 million is thought to be recovered.

Languages interpreted at Southend Hospital:

Albanian

Bangladeshi

Bengali

British Sign Language

Cantonese Czech Guajarati

filipino

Hindi

Italian

Kosovan

Mandarin

Polish

Portuguese

Punjabi

Romanian

Russian

Slovakian

Tamil

Thai

Urdu

Vietnamese

Yoruba