Aichi training medical interpreters for foreigners

The Aichi Prefectural Government is running a project to train medical interpreters in English, Portuguese, Chinese and Spanish to help improve communication between foreign patients and doctors.

The prefecture is collaborating with hospitals, universities and municipalities in the project, and will start sending interpreters or providing an interpreting service over the phone in October. A full-fledged service is slated to start next April.

Once operational, the phone service will be available 24 hours a day year-round. Aichi will also prepare medical questionnaires in the four languages.

As part of the project, Teruko Asano, an associate professor at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, taught medical interpretation sessions at Aichi University's Kurumamichi Campus in Nagoya on Aug. 7, in which students acted as patients, interpreters and doctors.

Hospitals and clinics will basically pay for the service, but patients may be asked to partially cover the costs.

Out of the 740 applicants who took exams and were interviewed, the prefecture selected 99 to become interpreters. Those chosen, who include both Japanese and non-Japanese, are taking 36 hours of lessons in seven days with help from Aichi University, Nagoya University of Foreign Studies and Aichi Prefectural University. The classes also cover the health insurance system and patient confidentiality.

To become medical interpreters, the candidates will have to pass a qualifying test.

One of the candidates, 39-year-old Airan Fukasaka, a Chinese national, said she has experience from being hospitalized and seeing family members hospitalized in Japan, and has been impressed with how doctors and nurses treat patients.

"I would be sorry if some people could not receive this wonderful medical treatment because of the language barrier," Fukasaka said.

Reiko Egawa, 50, from Taiwan, said she applied for the position because she is already sometimes asked to interpret at a hospital, and wonders if the doctor understands her.

"Mimetic words such as 'chikuchiku' (stinging pain) and 'zukizuki' (pounding pain) are difficult. Medical systems are different (in foreign countries) and thus we need to explain Japan's system" to foreigners, Egawa said.

About 205,000 foreigners live in Aichi Prefecture. In a survey conducted by the prefecture last year, nearly half of the 1,000 foreign residents who responded complained that "there are too few hospitals and clinics that have interpreters" and said they "cannot properly inform doctors of symptoms in Japanese."

Some foreigners also complained that diagnoses are often wrong and they don't trust medicine in Japan. It is thought communication problems are behind some of the misunderstandings.

"In the case of internal medicine, filling out medical questionnaires helps identify 80 percent of illnesses," said Nobuo Ito, a doctor and member of the preparation committee for the interpretation service. "Interpreters are necessary for difficult diseases. Telephone interpreting services would be convenient for small clinics to use, and that would also help ease patients' concerns," said Ito, who is also a director of the Aichi Medical Association.

This section, appearing Saturdays, features topics and issues from the Chubu region covered by the Chunichi Shimbun. The original article was published Aug. 16.

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