REVEALED: Sherwood Forest Hospitals spend over £74,000 on translators in one year

A freedom of information request revealed that translators were needed for 23 different languages in 2016/2017.

In 2016 to 2017, the Trust, which is responsible for King's Mill Hospital, Newark Hospital and Mansfield Community Hospital, spent £43,649 on translators.

In 2017 to 2018, the Trust spent £74,980, an increase of 70%.

The most popular language that required translating was Polish, with 248 face-to-face translations from July 1 to December 31 2017, costing £14,816.

The second most popular language was Russian, with 24 face-to-face translations from July 1 to December 31 2017, costing £1,929.

Health bosses say that translations now cost more, and there is more demand for services.

A spokeswoman for Sherwood Forest Hospitals Trust said: "Costs for interpretation and translation services have increased at the Trust over the past five years due to the increase in demand for these services by our patients."If an interpretation service is required for a patient, the Trust looks for the most cost effective and appropriate way of providing this, which is usually a telephone service."Each request for face to face interpreting is reviewed by the Trust’s translation services team and a decision is then made about the most appropriate translationservice to use."

Nationally, hospitals are facing a winter crisis, which the NHS are warning will be an “even tougher winter” than the record-breaking crisis of last winter, as hospital bosses warn of staff and funding shortages.