80 babies of non-English speaking patients have died or been harmed due to language barriers in the NHS: Medics ‘relying on Google Translate’ due to lack of interpreters

Dozens of babies have died or been injured in England due to problems with the NHS ‘wild west’ translation service, it was revealed today.

Patients who do not speak English must have an interpreter available when using public services.

However, according to the patient safety watchdog, problems accessing a system within the NHS have contributed to the death or serious brain injury of 80 babies in the past five years.

In one case, a woman died during childbirth after neither she nor her husband, who had fled war in Sudan, were informed that she would be induced or told how critical her condition was after childbirth due to bad communication.

Non-English speaking patients have also claimed that NHS staff have resorted to using Google Translate to inform them about their care, including telling a woman she needed emergency surgery.

Experts today warned that the interpretation service is ‘extremely patchy’.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) data was obtained by the BBC through a freedom of information request.

Figures were asked about incidents from the period 2018-2022 in which a baby died in the first week of life or suffered serious brain damage.

Of the 2,607 cases identified, 80 listed interpretation or communication difficulties due to language difficulties as a contributing factor.

The BBC said it was asked for the data after a woman died during childbirth and was unaware of how critical her condition was due to a lack of an interpreter.

Rana Abdelkarim, 38, and her husband Modar Mohammednour, originally from Sudan, thought she was going to the hospital for a routine appointment.

As a result, her husband stayed home to care for their three-year-old daughter.

However, the appointment at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on March 8, 2021 was actually to induce labor as she had gestational diabetes – meaning it is safer to deliver earlier.

The couple, who spoke limited English, had not been provided with an interpreter and was therefore unaware of the plan.

It meant that Rana gave birth without her husband present. She then started bleeding profusely and was taken for emergency surgery.

However, she became unresponsive and died.

The hospital only called Modar after Rana’s death, meaning he had no idea his child had been born or that his wife was in critical condition.

He told the BBC: ‘They called me and said to me, “You have to get to the hospital very quickly”, and then he said, “We tried to keep her alive, but she has died”.’

Modar said better access to an interpreter would have helped the couple understand what happened.

“It would have helped me and her to make the right decision about how she is going to deliver the baby and she would know what is going to happen to her,” he added.

The HSIB found that Rana was not informed due to a lack of an interpreter, that there was a 30-minute delay in staff activating an emergency call bell after she began bleeding heavily and that there was a further delay in transferring her blood .

Patients have the right to a professional interpreter throughout their care and the NHS is legally responsible for providing one.

Professor Mark Pietroni, medical director and deputy chief executive of the trust, said: ‘Rana’s death after the birth of her baby is devastating to her family and we would like to express our sincere condolences to her relatives. We would like to take this opportunity to once again apologize for the immeasurable suffering this loss has caused.

‘The Trust has acted on the coroner’s recommendations to ensure that all identified lessons have been learned and embedded in our daily practice.

“The circumstances leading to Rana’s death were immediately and thoroughly investigated. An independent safety review has been carried out by the HSIB. In addition, the Trust undertook further investigations to provide clarity to Rana’s family about the cause of her death. The findings of this investigation have been shared with Rana’s family and HM Coroner and we have implemented all ten recommendations from the HSIB report.

‘We are absolutely committed to providing the safest service possible. To do this we will invite external reviews where appropriate and build on our commitment to listening to women, their partners and staff to create a culture that enables excellent care.”

In a separate case at a Glasgow hospital, an unidentified woman told the BBC that NHS staff used Google Translate to communicate with her.

The woman, from Syria, had suffered a life-threatening hemorrhage shortly after giving birth and the medics were initially unable to reach an interpreter by telephone.

As a result, staff spent 15 minutes on the translation website telling her she needed emergency surgery to remove her uterus – despite her plea not to remove it because she wanted to have more children.

Professor Hassan Shehata, vice-president for global health at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, told the BBC that language barriers in the NHS “increase the risk” because it means women struggle to “cope with maternity care and their concerns about to healthcare professionals’. .

The National Register of Public Service Interpreters, a voluntary regulator of professional interpreters, has compared the NHS to the ‘wild West’.

The supply of interpreters was said to be ‘extremely patchy’.

Mike Orlov, executive director, told the broadcaster that there are frequent cases of staff using family members or friends for language services.

An NHS spokesperson said: ‘Community language translation and interpretation services are vital to patient safety and the local areas that commission these services are responsible for applying the highest possible quality standards.

‘NHS England is currently completing a study to determine if and how we can support improvements in the commissioning and delivery of translation services.’

It comes after data last week showed two in three maternity wards in England are not safe enough, Care Quality Commission figures show.

It rated 67 percent of services as ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’, up from 55 percent a year ago. The proportion of units deemed ‘insufficient’ – the lowest rating – has doubled, the figures show.

Such a ruling means that, according to the CQC’s criteria, there is a high risk of avoidable harm to mothers and babies.

The regulator called the situation ‘unacceptable’ and warned Safety during pregnancy ‘is still so far from where it should be’.

Health leaders blame a shortage of midwives. Inspectors have also warned of culture and leadership problems.