Lost in translation.

PermaBanned said:
Except it probably wouldn't save any money due to the administration costs of such a system and goes completely against the basic principles that make the NHS so valuable in the first place.
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But as a smoker I apparently place an extra burden on the NHS, something I pay for through excessive taxes. It is my choice to smoke so I sort of have to weather paying the extra taxes and I completely understand. Someone coming to live here permanently and therefore enjoying the benefit of the nhs, yet not being able to communicate with the staff also place an extra burden on the nhs so why shouldn't they pay a tad extra for it, after all it was their choice.

As a comparison in Canada if you have children you pay a touch more into the pot, this covers the extra burden on the state of having to educate your children, which also seems pretty fair.
 
But it's relatively easy to tax smokers by taxing the source. You can't really get everyone coming into the country who doesn't speak English to give you some money on the off chance that they might need to go to hospital at some point.

Also, smoking increases your chances of needing to use the NHS. Not speaking English doesn't.
 
The knee-jerk replies aren't surprising in this age of desperately trying not to appear rascist.

To be honest, if i go abroad on holiday i take out medical insurance to cover the cost of treatments, which would include translation so that i could be correctly diagnosed. If i chose to go and live abroad then I would not expect someone else to pay for a translator for me - i would expect to pay myself, or better still, learn the language of the country i have moved to!
 
dodgem said:
The knee-jerk replies aren't surprising in this age of desperately trying not to appear rascist.

To be honest, if i go abroad on holiday i take out medical insurance to cover the cost of treatments, which would include translation so that i could be correctly diagnosed. If i chose to go and live abroad then I would not expect someone else to pay for a translator for me - i would expect to pay myself, or better still, learn the language of the country i have moved to!
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Nobody said they lived here.
 
dodgem said:
The knee-jerk replies aren't surprising in this age of desperately trying not to appear rascist.

To be honest, if i go abroad on holiday i take out medical insurance to cover the cost of treatments, which would include translation so that i could be correctly diagnosed. If i chose to go and live abroad then I would not expect someone else to pay for a translator for me - i would expect to pay myself, or better still, learn the language of the country i have moved to!
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That's what it comes down to really, people being too lazy to learn the language of the country they live in.

The problem isn't so much the NHS having to employ the translators, as the situation shouldn't exist in the first place on that sort of scale. More emphasis is needed on getting people moving to the UK to speak English, it would solve more problems than just this.
 
PermaBanned said:
But it's relatively easy to tax smokers by taxing the source. You can't really get everyone coming into the country who doesn't speak English to give you some money on the off chance that they might need to go to hospital at some point.
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Yeah it's flawed but should at least be looked at.

Also, smoking increases your chances of needing to use the NHS. Not speaking English doesn't.[/QUOTE]

I could explain why some people from different cultures could be deemed an extra burden on the NHS, but I'd be heading down the racism route, (I wouldn't be but unfortunately that is how it would be perceived).
 
rotters said:
holiday makers? would you expect to be outcast if you had an accident abroad in a country where you dont speak the language?
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I'd expect my insurance company to get the tab for translation services. I dunno, are translation services available under EHIC? If they are I see no problem with a reciprocal service - however I suspect that it's not european language translations that are costing the nhs the most
 
For the sake of easy numbers, let's say that's £23,000 for a translator - so that's 1000 translators for the entire country. Less if that figure includes costs other than wages. Not exactly a huge fraction of the 1,000,000 + people who work for the NHS or the 100-odd billion NHS budget, is it?

'Shock as the cost of something added up for an entire nation is a big enough number that the DM think it worthy of a headline!'
 
It would help pay for medical negligence payouts when surgeons stupidly scar people when they operate on them though.

Seriously though it may be a comparitively low figure but the NHS need to be making cuts, make a more cost effective service, and as the old adage goes, look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

I feel it a bit daft to say that just because it's not a lot of money compared to the overall budget then the issue should be ignored.
 
mollymoo said:
I feel it a bit daft to say that just because it's not a lot of money compared to the overall budget then the issue should be ignored.
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It shouldn't be ignored because it is a small amount of money, it should be ignored because it is not an issue.

Its just yet more "Tax payers pay tax and that tax money is used for things that don't directly benefit them every day, the horror!" garbage from the daily mail.
 
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Fenris said:
It shouldn't be ignored because it is a small amount of money, it should be ignored because it is not an issue.
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It's 23.3 million pounds worth of an issue, although you can't completely eradicate the problem, you can go to some lengths to reducing the bill. Use the same across all the non-essential services that the NHS provide and you start to get an efficient NHS.
 
Fenris said:
It shouldn't be ignored because it is a small amount of money, it should be ignored because it is not an issue.

Its just yet more "Tax payers pay tax and that tax money is used for things that don't directly benefit them every day, the horror!" garbage from the daily mail.
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Exactly. It's just making a sensational headline out of a non-issue. You could probably make a hundred more the same about the cost of other NHS services, and 1000 more about the cost of government services. Of course this appeals to the immigrants are evil mindset - probably why it was chosen.
 
Liampope said:
Of course this appeals to the immigrants are evil mindset - probably why it was chosen.
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Immigrants aren't evil though, however unfortunately they can cost more money than the average bod, this is one of the reasons why. I cost more money apparently than the average bod, but I pay tax to more than compensate.
 
mollymoo said:
It's 23.3 million pounds worth of an issue, although you can't completely eradicate the problem, you can go to some lengths to reducing the bill. Use the same across all the non-essential services that the NHS provide and you start to get an efficient NHS.
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The NHS budget for 2011/12 is £106Billion, of which 23.3 million is around 0.02%.

Perspective, please.
 
mollymoo said:
It's 23.3 million pounds worth of an issue, although you can't completely eradicate the problem, you can go to some lengths to reducing the bill. Use the same across all the non-essential services that the NHS provide and you start to get an efficient NHS.
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And you're qualified to decide what a 'non-essential' service is then, are you?
 
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