UK Emergency Service Workers’ Care Compromised Due to Language Barriers

Frontline emergency service workers in the UK face many daily struggles, but perhaps surprisingly, language barriers are one of the main obstacles that can significantly affect response times, decision-making and even the safety of care delivered. Research that we recently conducted with 500 emergency service care workers found that almost 50% experience difficulty understanding the symptoms of those they attend, due to this.

Uniformed workers including those in the police, ambulance and fire service, responded to a recent Pocketalk survey which highlighted the ongoing difficulty in communicating effectively in a situation that is often critical and usually time-pressured. So big is the issue that almost one in five emergency workers (17%) face language barriers daily, with a further 26% encountering issues most weeks.

Our study also found that nearly a third (31%) said a language barrier had directly impacted the quality or safety of care they were able to provide, with the problem especially acute in certain areas of the county.

We know from previous data published in December 2024, by the National Institute of Health Research (NICR), that unclear communication when responding to an emergency puts patients and victims lives at risk. Our own research last year showed that emergency service workers each lose a week of work  every year due to language challenges.

Since then, the UK Government has announced several measures to improve all emergency services, including new ambulances and better, faster, more appropriate care. However, it’s unclear whether these improvements will sufficiently tackle the problem of translation in all emergency service sectors.

According to our most recent findings, the specific translation challenges caused by these barriers, are:

1. Difficulty in understanding the situation or symptoms – 47%
2. Need for additional translation resources not available at the time – 46%
3. Inability to explain treatment or next steps – 39%
4. Increased stress or anxiety for the individual involved – 40%
5. Delays in providing care – 37%
6. Forced use of unauthorised devices – 34%
7. Miscommunication making an emergency situation dangerous – 18%
8. Compromised safety of care or incorrect decisions – 18%

Compared to last year’s research that was conducted among the same audience, things don’t seem to have improved; these recent stats continue on a negative trajectory and action needs to be taken promptly to provide secure, accurate, effective language translation solutions that help in those critical situations, making a difference between life and death or deescalating dangerous situations.

Notwithstanding the large amounts currently spent on emergency service translation solutions, many first responders feel the tools they rely on are often not readily available to use or too slow to implement in an emergency situation. Resorting to using personal phones and apps is unauthorised and not secure, although often used in desperation, and translating through family or friends can cause safeguarding issues.

With the UK emergency sectors we have worked with so far, we can see how Pocketalk can form part of the overall resolution in bridging the communications gap, giving workers an accurate, instantaneous, secure, highly cost effective, real-time translation solution they can rely on when every second counts.

Currently in the UK and Ireland, Pocketalk is working with several ambulance services and over 100 primary and secondary healthcare organisations, including A&E departments, to help workers address language barriers. We will continue to be the voice of language translation change and look forward to healthier stats for emergency service workers and those they attend in the near future.