EXPOSED: Crisis-ridden NHS trust spending millions on Bengali and Romanian translation while patients suffer
A crisis-ridden NHS trust is spending millions on translation services despite serious failings and substandard care, FoI data obtained by GB News has revealed.
Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs five hospitals across east London, has spent £2,309,277 on translation services in the last five years, despite serious failings as sever financial pressure.
The figures is enough to hire 92 nurses, 76 junior doctors or roughly 46,000 GP appointments.
The hefty sum has drawn sharp criticism from immigration sceptics who argue these costs are just one piece of proof of mass migration’s financial cost on the NHS.
Translation costs have increased year on year. In 2019/20, translation cost the Trust £237,597. By 2024/25, this had more than doubled to £561,270.
The most translated languages over these five years in the Trust were Bengali Dhaka, Bengali Sylheti, Romanian, Portuguese and Turkish.
Barts Health NHS Trust translation costs, 2019-2025
GBN
On this trajectory, translation costs are set to hit £1million per year in late 2028, enough to pay for 2,398 ambulance call outs taking patients to A&E.
William Yarwood, media campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers are routinely lost for words at the endless revelations about the ballooning cost of translation services in the public sector.
“In the health service the problem seems to be particularly severe, and many will be asking whether the NHS delivers these services as efficiently as they should be.
“The NHS should be looking at whether they can cut down costs using more online services and sharing resources.”
It comes after an external investigation found Barts Health NHS Trust to have a ‘corrosive culture of competition and bigotry’ which led to patients being harmed.
Among a litany of horrifying testimonies from employees and patients, senior consultants accused each other of ‘poor surgery, causing avoidable complications and negligence’ to patients.
This included three patients who went blind and had to have repair surgery and seven others who, after waiting three to five years for surgery, found their appointments cancelled after doctors refused to work together.
The report also found employees feel the hospitals under Bart Health Trust are not ‘psychologically safe spaces to work’ due to misogyny, racism, homophobia and bullying.
One senior consultant was reported for using the ‘n-word’, making misogynistic remarks about women and joking he wanted to ‘stab any homosexual’.
The report concluded: “There was significant evidence that service delivery and the performance of the team will continue to be impacted by this level of dysfunction.
“Of most concern was the view held by a number of consultants, junior staff and medical management that patient safety has been, or potentially could be, impacted by the deterioration in the working relationships between these four consultants.”
Patient satisfaction with NHS has hit a record low of 21 per cent, a new survey has foundPA
The external report chimed with the Care Quality Commission’s most recent report into Barts Health Trust.
The Trust received a ‘requires improvement’ rating, reporting that staff “regularly worked through breaks and beyond the end of their shift.”
The areas the CQC found ‘requiring improvement’ in the Trust were ‘Safety’, ‘Responsiveness’ and ‘Use of Resources’.
Responding to the investigation, Dr Neil Ashman, chief executive of Royal London Hospital, said: “We would like to reassure patients that the service we provide is safe, and there is no evidence of poor outcomes for our patients as a result of relationships between our colleagues.
“At Barts Health, we do not accept any type of racist, homophobic or misogynistic behaviour. We are committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment, reviewing the findings of the report and taking appropriate action.”
It comes as NHS Trusts across Britain come under fire for splashing millions on new Diversity, Equality and Inclusion roles, often with large pensions, work from home and a slew of other perks.
Critics argue the money should be channelled into supporting frontline health care staff and tackling spiralling waiting lists instead.
Research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance revealed Barts Health Trust spend £376,645 on seven diversity roles.
This is despite the fact some senior staff have said there is no evidence DEI improves efficiency and patient treatment in the NHS.
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Wes Streeting believes some of the more radical DEI policies and initiatives have damaged the overall cause and need to be scaled back
PA
Health Secretary Wes Streeting appears to be making moves against DEI roles. He wants the £22.6 billion increase in the NHS’s day-to-day budget and a £3.1 billion boost to the capital budget Chancellor Reeves handed the NHS to be spent effectively.
Mr Streeting said: “We’ve got to deal with these challenges against the backdrop at the moment, let’s be honest, where equality, diversity and inclusion is under a lot of spotlight and discussion.
“Now, I could get quite a lot of plaudits from quite a lot of people across the country … [If I said:] ‘You know what? NHS, tough times, I’m going to scrap all of those equality, diversity and inclusion people. We’ll save loads of money doing that, and we’ll divert the money into actual patient care’.
“Except, ask black nurses about their experiences of being bullied in the workplace in an organisation that has had black people in it since it was founded pretty much … Empire Windrush, NHS foundation, same year – that generation built the NHS.
“You look at outcomes: prostate cancer, black men twice as likely to die of prostate cancer than white men, black women three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. We’ve got some real racial inequalities here.”
Mr Streeting then went on to highlight that while DEI can be a force for good, zealots have undermined the cause significantly with ridiculous initiatives.
“Sometimes there are some really daft things being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion, which [have] undermined the cause. For example, there was one member of NHS staff who was merrily tweeting a job ad online and saying part of her practice was anti-whiteness,” said Streeting.
“I just thought: what the hell does that say to the bloke up in Wigan who’s more likely to die earlier than his more affluent white counterparts down in London? We’ve got real issues of inequality that affect white working-class people.”
A spokesperson for Barts Health NHS Trust said: “We serve one of the most diverse populations in the country, with more than 60 languages spoken amongst our 2.5 million patients in East London and beyond.
“Our translation services are vital in ensuring we communicate effectively to our non-English speaking patients, removing these services would create barriers that can impact on patient care, experience and safety.”
A Department for Health spokesperson said: “This spending includes services to make sure the hard of hearing and blind people can access the NHS.
“We have been clear that there will be no investment in the NHS without reform, and we are making sure every penny of investment in the health service is well spent.”
