Patients with non-English language preference: data from an Australian healthcare facility on reported use of professional interpreting services

Patients with a non-English language preference (NELP) require services in a language different from that spoken by English-speaking healthcare practitioners. National guidelines advocate professional interpreting services, but little is known about patients’ perspectives and factors that secure interpreting for them. A total of 1,120 NELP patients in Melbourne were surveyed from 2016 to 2020 in their preferred language. Patients report high awareness and utilisation of free interpreting services, predominantly initiated by healthcare staff rather than themselves. This points to cultural competence among healthcare staff as crucial for them to identify the need for interpreters. Alongside this, some patients rely on family members for linguistic mediation. This may result from patients not (self-)reporting their NELP or from contextual considerations. Amongst the latter are patients’ privacy concerns and a lack of understanding that interpreters are bound to observe ethical principles such as confidentiality and impartiality. These responses underscore the need for explicit explanations from healthcare providers and interpreters to patients about their roles and the protocols they observe.