Should The Nhs Be Spending £100M So As To Provide Free Translators?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/756977/NHS-spends-100-million-on-TRANSLATORS-in-128-languages

[THECORBYLOON]

Is withdrawing £20m a year paid for translation going to make the difference between the NHS collapsing or no?

[fiction-factory]

The NHS won't collapse because of £100 million it spends on translators- it's less than 0.1% of its annual spend, and it may cost more in other ways if it didn't spend this money. Now you've brought 'signalling' (virtue signalling?) into it to add to 'youmanrights'/'eeqwuality' and 'luvvies' I think the discussion has losts its way. I'll leave it there

[fiction-factory]

Sorry-started typing before I'd seen yours TheCorbyloon

[THECORBYLOON]

This year's budget for the English NHS is £126,000,000,000 and as the £100,000,000 mentioned in the article covers a five-year period it is £20,000,000 a year or 0.016% of the budget.

[Togo]

Wow is that all? Money no object .....when its not yours then. Take care of the pennies and all that. Unless you were brought up in an environment where "money" was easy to come by, then of course it is nothing. Perhaps I should become a "translator", for the deaf maybe, hand signals , or the blind, graphic descriptions, need to do some work though in getting through to the feeble of thought. Do you provide an interpreter at the vet for your dog or cat or foxhunter?

[THECORBYLOON]

Some of that money IS mines because I pay tax and NI. If I needed an interpreter for my dog I'd be with it on the stage, not at the vet.

[Mamyalynne]

Sign language is a great thing to learn.

Being a translator is a worthwhile career, a friend's son works for the UN and has travelled the World.

[Togo]

//Being a translator is a worthwhile career, a friend's son works for the UN and has travelled the World.//

That is the nub Mamy, career choice for some. Better than hard labour at the production end of the world economy system. But when did the National HEALTH Service become the lifeblood for the interpreters, rather than the providers of aid for the sick?

[Togo]

The thing is Corby, this NI contribution you are making. Now if it is through a government or local authority set up, well the money they use to pay you wasn't theirs in the first place was it? The original dosh is all generated through the private sector. Like I said millions of people treat government money as some sort of outright bonanza. The government hasn't got any money. The people who "work" for the government agencies only get paid because some graft to make profits in the real world, outside the bubble of self entitlement that eventually overcomes the graspers with the grappling hooks. If you do indeed work for the private sector you are supporting enough of the chancers already without defending or volunteering for more of the same. They all say it... I pay my tax and NI. Only possible if someone is working to provide the "job". Gonna send the vet a bill for translating for our dog. Bet I get a two word answer. It wont be thank you.

[THECORBYLOON]

If the government hasn't got any money, who has all the NI and tax? Are you saying that no private sector company makes huge profits by overcharging for their services or products? I have no idea what you are on about with vets and dog translators but if you are telling us you are barking, it comes as no great surprise.

[fiction-factory]

Your question "But when did the National HEALTH Service become the lifeblood for the interpreters, rather than the providers of aid for the sick?" is flawed as it is based on an incorrect premise . The NHS is helping the sick. The translators are helping the NHS. The NHS needs them.
In an ideal world we wouldn't need translators in all sorts of state organisations (hospitals, schools, job centres) if everyone learned the language, and we wouldn't need signers if deafness could be cured, but we are a long way from that. Making people pay from translation services would not probably lead to more problems whether it be in hospitals or maybe in school with remedial English classes or at parents' evenings.

Togo, when you refer to people who don't see things your way as being 'feeble of thought' when they don't agree with you it makes discussion pointless.

Hope your dog gets better. Hope the vet understood when the dog said it was felling "ruff"