AI translation tools could help improve communication at hospital discharge, supporting safer care and more equitable access to information for non-English speakers.

Research lead:

Ricky Odedra

Quick facts:

  • Some 170,000 adults in North West London don’t speak English as their first language
  • Interpreter services cost the NHS an estimated £110 million a year
  • Communication can fail when people leave hospital, putting them at risk

There are significant patient safety risks for non-native English speakers when they use NHS emergency departments. In North West London, almost 700,000 individuals do not speak English as a primary language. At Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Arabic, Portuguese and Polish are commonly requested for interpreter support in A&E services.

Despite this, professional interpreters are not consistently used, particularly when patients leave hospital (“discharge”) and are given important information about medications, follow-up care and safety advice. In many cases, this information is delivered in English or through informal, unverified translation methods. This can leave families unable to fully understand or act on instructions after leaving hospital.

Research led by Ricky Odedra examined this issue by reviewing existing evidence and by studying patients’ behaviour and experiences in a paediatric emergency department.

He found that communication often fails at discharge and that professional interpreters were not used during the process, even when there were language barriers. Instead, staff and families relied on workarounds such as gestures, family members or machine translation tools, which vary in reliability and safety.

The project is now exploring whether artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help communicate information to Arabic, Portuguese and Polish-speaking families. If shown to be safe and accurate, the tools have the potential to reduce preventable errors and to support fairer access to care for non-native speakers. It may also reduce demand on interpreter services – estimated to cost around £110 million a year – allowing for more efficient use of NHS resources.