Telephone interpreting for healthcare services: potential problems and solutions

The name of the SHIFT project, which inspired this work, contains its aim: “Shaping Interpreters of the Future and of Today”. It is precisely with this aim in mind that this chapter presents an analysis and discussion of interpreter-mediated health care service calls. Today technology pervades all fields of life, and interpreting is not an exception. In recent years, the use of “remote” interpreting based on computer video links, telephone (and even mobile phones very recently) has increased exponentially. This is not only the result of technological advances but also of European societies becoming increasingly multilingual and multicultural because of migration flows and governments trying to guarantee access to public services to non-native speakers who live permanently or temporarily in the country but do not speak the language, at the same time also trying to cut costs because of growing budget constraints. This work focuses on interpreting on the phone for health services in Spain and aims at highlighting some potential problems and solutions related to this specific interpreting mode which, as we will see, poses different challenges compared to interpreting in face-to-face encounters.