Scientific background
Healthcare and public service interpreting is not only well organized but also extensively studied in various pronouncedly multiethnic societies such as Australia (see, e.g., Ozolins 1998, Merlini and Favaron 2007) or Canada (e.g. Abraham and Fiola 2006). It is also investigated in countries that represent a destination of intensive immigration such as the US (e.g. Schweda Nicholson 1994, Angelelli 2004, Angelelli 2007, Angelelli et al. 2007), the UK (e.g. Cambridge 2008), Germany (Bahadir 2000, 2004, 2008, Meyer 2004, Otero 2008), the Netherlands (e.g. Bot 2007), Denmark (e.g. Dubslaff and Martinsen 2007), Spain (Sanchez-Reyes et al. 2004, Valero Garcés 2007, Gutierrez and Garcés 2008), and Switzerland (Leanza 2007). The issue is also being extensively discussed in neighbouring countries such as Austria (e.g. Pöllabauer and Prunč 2003, Grbić and Pöllabauer 2006) and Italy (e.g. Amato 2007, Buri 2008).
The majority of studies show that communication between service-providers and migrants in healthcare settings is often highly deficient mainly because there is a severe lack of trained interpreters for such settings (see e.g. Allaoui 2005). Foreign-language patients/clients are often accompanied by lay interpreters (who usually belong to their family), and if this is not the case, the interpreters are found among non-qualified personnel working in the hospital who are not trained as interpreters and are often not able to guarantee adequate communication and understanding (see e.g. Pöchhacker and Kadric 1999). This situation not only bears a high potential of frustration for both service- providers and patients, it also carries a high risk of inadequate service-provision (non-compliance, failure of therapy, unnecessary follow-ups, etc.) and, last but not least, a cost increase due to this (see e.g. Abraham and Fiola 2006; Hampers and McNulty 2002, Mesiti and Yaczucco 1995; Ribera et al. 2008). Consequently, the majority, if not all, of the above mentioned studies underline the importance of using trained interpreters in healthcare settings (see also Sánchez-Reyes et al. 2004).
Despite this growing interest in the field of public-service interpreting and healthcare interpreting, those fields are strangely almost completely ignored by the new member states (the only exception being Tryuk’s discussion of community interpreting in Poland (Tryuk 2007, 2008), and Sauvêtre’s (2000) description of migratory flows in Central Europe). This lack of research reflects the fact that in many of the new member states there is no awareness of the need for healthcare interpreting and therefore also no organised healthcare interpreting service. The statistical data provided by Eurostat (cf. Vertot 2009, 67) show that in Slovenia the dramatic increase in immigration flow does not allow this research passivity any longer.
