Poor English unhealthy for migrants

By JEREMY REES

A survey of immigrants has found that more than half of them fear that they do not have enough English to understand their doctor if they are seriously ill.

The research on 1500 immigrants in Auckland and Christchurch found that many did not understand the health system and were worried about their ability to talk to nurses and doctors at hospital or at surgeries.

"This is a significant problem," said Professor Ron Holt, leader of the research team.

The study said New Zealand had lagged well behind countries like Canada and Australia in providing language lessons for immigrants and refugees.

Canada provides unlimited lessons for immigrants in English and French, Australia guarantees 520 hours tuition but New Zealand provides little help with English, although the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre provides a six-week orientation programme.

The survey calls for more money to be put into hospitals for interpreters and for the Government to provide language tuition.

Among its findings were:

* A third of those surveyed were not aware of basic medical benefits such as the community services card.

* Seventy per cent of women did not understand the maternity system of having a "lead maternity carer".

* Forty per cent did not know what to do in a medical emergency.

* A large number who had been in hospital for a serious operation never asked for an interpreter even though one was available free.

* One in four did not know that GP consultations and immunisation were free for children under six.

Those surveyed said hospitals needed more interpreters, signboards in various languages, more receptionists who could speak languages other than English, and better pamphlets explaining details of the health system in their language.

The director of Auckland University of Technology's Centre for Translation and Interpreting Studies, Ineke Crezee, said: "Not only are immigrants for whom English is an additional language particularly vulnerable in cases of serious illness, but hospitals themselves are vulnerable to litigation under relevant legislation. In the United States, several class action suits by non-English-speaking patients have recently been successful against major hospitals."

Dr Nagalingam Rasalingam, a GP and the president of Auckland's Refugee Council, said it was difficult for some people to speak to a doctor about a problem.

"Can you imagine, if you are a woman, having to ask for a prescription for oral contraceptives and having to rely on your teenage daughter to translate."

The study's authors want free English lessons for immigrants, hospital interpreting services to increase and, in cases of serious illness, be extended to GPs, and the translation of key healthcare information into the languages of just arrived refugees and immigrants.

Professor Holt said the growth of people speaking languages other than English had crept up on New Zealand, spurred by the change of immigration policies in the 1990s, which changed the source of migrants from the established channels of Europe and the Pacific Islands to parts of Asia.

On top of this was the growth of refugees from parts of Africa.

"It's not just the medical system where there is strain. It is showing up in the legal system, too. I know of judges who have been forced to abort trials because of a lack of interpreters."