Recommendations to make hospitals more open and welcoming to immigrants and ethnic minorities are to be drawn up, following the success of a project in a Dublin hospital.
A 2002 survey at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, found that 17 per cent of admissions were patients from countries other than Ireland or Britain. Another survey of staff and patients highlighted language and cultural barriers for these minority groups and found there was a lack of timely access to translators.
Patients were using their children to interpret for them and this was not recommended, particularly where young children were involved. To remedy this, the hospital provided training and guidelines for staff and developed a relationship with a professional interpreters' agency. By the end of the 2½ year project, there had been a 9 per cent increase in the use of professional interpreters at the hospital and an 11 per cent decline in the inappropriate use of children for interpretation.
Some 91 per cent of staff who took part in the project said the training had had a "very significant" or "quite a lot of " impact on their everyday practice. Co-ordinator Angela Hughes said the team now planned to extend the project to all departments at Connolly and to develop national recommendations to implement immigrant-friendly best practice in other hospitals.
The team has also been involved in setting up a European task force on immigrant-friendly hospitals. The task force met yesterday at an international conference organised by the WHO Health Promoting Hospitals network in Dublin. The conference also heard that healthcare was the fourth highest "at risk" sector on occupational health and safety grounds.
Sarah Copsey, project manager for the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, said a recent health and safety survey of EU workers had found that healthcare workers were at high risk of violence from the public; stress; bullying; reproductive hazards; biological hazards; occupational illness; sickness absence and heavy loads.
She said these risks could be reduced if staff were informed, trained and given more control in their jobs.
Ms Copsey said hospital management must be committed to change and there must be a "clear no-blame" approach when staff reported incidents.
