New translations keeping everyone safe at St Bartholomew's
Gulnar (Gully) Vasta explains how we’ve adapted our front door screening process at St Bartholomew’s to keep everyone safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.
St Bartholomew’s provides a range of local and specialist services to diverse communities from across north east London and further afield.
One of our objectives is to provide safe and compassionate care for all everyone, regardless of their background, or what language they speak, and this means being inclusive.
This is something that, as an organisation, we take great pride in.
The last 12 months have brought a number of unique challenges, and collectively we have stepped up to provide ‘good, safe and effective care’, but in a different way.
Back in the spring, we kick-started a process whereby patients are screened prior to their appointment at the front door to the hospital.
This involves patients completing a triage form with one of our front door team members, assessing any possible Covid-19 symptoms or exposure to someone with the virus.
Thanks to the support of colleagues from a range of backgrounds, and who can speak a range of languages, the triage form is now available in Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Turkish, Spanish and Portuguese – with even more languages planned soon!
In today’s world of multi-cultural communities, effective communication is key.
Having the triage document in a number of languages (not just English) not only supports our agenda as being an inclusive organisation, but also helps with the communication and exchange of important information.
This keeps the hospital, our staff, our patients and communities safe.
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