The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Interpreters bridge language divide for foreign patients

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Interpreters bridge language divide for foreign patients

M. Dinesh Varma

Hospitals in city either have in-house interpreters or commission someone from outside

A BETTER LIFE: Iraqi child Jumana Ali (left) and Noor Nehana from Pakistan.

CHENNAI: What do hospitals here do when the patient walking in knows no language other than his native Pashto or Swahili? Summon an interpreter to help doctor-patient communication, as many major hospitals, which are faced with an influx of foreign patients, are doing these days.

With Chennai's rise as a high-quality and affordable medical tourism hub, hospital doors have swung open to patients from distant lands. Besides neighbouring Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, patient arrivals originate from the UAE, Iraq, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Fiji and Seychelles.

Today, it is not uncommon for a patient, say in Fiji, to take the long haul through Australia, Korea and Mumbai to reach Chennai for a heart surgery. The costs here are almost ten times cheaper than in the U.S. and at least six times cheaper than in a place such as Singapore.

Some hospitals have active tie-ups with foreign governments for treating patients. In other cases, patients arrive through word-of-mouth understanding of the clinical excellence available here or through referrals by overseas doctors who know specialists here.

The Madras Medical Mission has opened tie-ups with Ministries of Health in Africa, West Asia and other regions and charts out a treatment schedule for patients through public-private partnerships with organisations like the Rotary, Lions Club or other NGOs. Almost 25 per cent of MMM's beds are earmarked for foreign patients.

Growing annually

Apollo Hospitals' roster of foreign patients is growing at between 10 and 15 per cent annually. There is now overseas demand for orthopaedics, cardiology, cardio-thoracic, oncology, medical and surgical gastroenterology, urology, nephrology, IVF and cosmetology specialities, said Ashok Anantram, president (business development), Apollo Hospitals.

At Apollo, interpreters are expected to accompany the patient throughout the treatment period. While English acts as a functional bridge for a majority of patients from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Oman, the hospital assigns Arabic-versed interpreters to manage the substantial flow of patients from the UAE.

Though most visiting groups of foreign patients are accompanied by an English speaking volunteer, the task of catering to the entire group is often beyond the capability of one person. Hospitals either have in-house interpreters or commission someone from outside.

"The support systems that we have evolved range from interpreters to pastoral care and customised cuisine," said A. John Punnoose, Chief Executive Officer, MMM.

Many Iraqi parents, such as Saladdin and Sabah, leave their homeland for the first time in the hope of curing their child's heart disease and know no other language other than Arabic. In Chennai, they are able to communicate with the doctors about the wonderful progress little Jumana Ali (3) is making through nursing coordinator Susamma John, who picked up Arabic during a stint in the Gulf.

For a Pakistani mother, the prospects of a better life for her ailing daughter, Noor Nehana, was compelling enough to undertake travel to India. "There was fear initially. But, now I wonder why we didn't make the trip to repair her valve earlier," she says in Hindi.

Luckily, most paediatric heat surgeries are one-time affairs. "We are able to discharge them as normal children," said R. Suresh Kumar, consultant paediatric cardiologist, MMM.

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