The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Translators are much sought after thanks to medical tourism City Pulse

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 16, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Translators are much sought after thanks to medical tourism City Pulse

Kannal Achuthan and J.Malarvizhi

An ancillary industry of facilitators is also thriving

— Photo: S.S.Kumar

At home: A translator assisting a foreigner admitted for treatment at MIOT Hospitals in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: Fifty-year-old Shoaa Syed Mohammed, who recently suffered a spinal fracture, bore the arduous journey from Iraq to Chennai seeking quality treatment at affordable cost. He did not speak Tamil and knew only a smattering of English but from the time he landed at Meenambakkam, he was offered a range of support services: airport transfers, an Arabic translator, his choice of cuisine and even a recuperative holiday if he desired.

Medical tourism has spawned an entire ancillary industry of facilitators. Some corporate hospitals choose to offer a gamut of services themselves while others have tied up with travel agencies and interpreters.

MIOT Hospitals, Manapakkam, has interpreters from Sudan who speak fluent Arabic. Haitham Farid and Galal Dawood help patients from Oman and Iraq.

The hospital also has translators for Sinhala, French and African languages, says its chairperson Mallika Mohandas.

“During the peak season of June, July and August, about 15-20 per cent of our patients are foreigners. It ranges from 10 to 12 per cent the rest of the year,” she said.

“Patients from the African nations or the Middle East sometimes require translation assistance,” says Priya Gopal, Media Coordinator, Frontier Lifeline Hospitals. The Hospital has appointed specific facilitators for these regions, who handle all communication in the language that the patient is comfortable with.

They have also employed specific cooks for these regions, so that patients can convalesce with a familiar cuisine. The Internet has helped individuals fluent in foreign languages to offer their services directly.

Translators charge Rs. 500 to Rs. 750 a day. K. Shyamsundar, who worked in West Asia for 10 years, liaises with patients from Arabia and arranges accommodation, treatment and city tours for clients.

“Families of patients like to do shopping. Arabs buy a lot of Indian sweets to take home after the treatment,” he said.

Ravi Ramalingam, Managing Director, KKR ENT Hospital, has occasionally needed to seek the assistance of people who have worked in the Gulf to translate for some Arab patients.

However, with most cases from abroad tending to come from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Gulf, he has found that more than 90 per cent of patients from abroad know English.

“We sometimes have more problems communicating with patients from neighbouring States like Andhra Pradesh, than with patients from abroad,” he said.

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