New translation service for women using maternity services at Wolverhampton hospital

The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust has purchased Wordskii to use within the maternity department for women and their families whose first language may not be English.

Wordskii is a cloud-based management system which helps organisations communicate in more than 350 languages using professional experienced interpreters through remote video and telephone technologies as and when needed. It is available via an app or web portal.

Video interpreting is being used increasingly within the trust’s maternity services as it brings many benefits to patient care in a multi-cultural environment.

Face-to-face interpreting is still required when consent is needed and where difficult diagnoses need to be shared across languages.

For less demanding interactions, video interpreting makes access to languages faster with the same quality standards as direct interpreting.

Jo Ridley, matron for intrapartum services, said: “Wordskii Live offers visual connections and cues that are lost with telephone interpreting, making it an attractive alternative.

“This service has been very well received by our women and their families and is proving to be a fantastic service improvement within maternity services.”

Whilst more common languages can be resourced equally, accessing rarer languages such as Xhosa, Russian Georgian or Twi (Akan) may result in an appointment being delayed by a week or more.

This is because interpreters in those languages are usually fully booked and often live in other areas of the country and have to be booked in and travel arranged.

Video interpreting can give same day access to most languages and is easily facilitated with a laptop and camera using the Wordskii app.

As video interpreting is charged by the minute used, whereas face-to-face interpreting is charged in hour blocks, whether used or not, it is a huge cost saving for the trust.