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Who pays? Who loses?
						
				
		
		
				Patricia Isa, while updating SAMCL's maternity antenatal
				booklet, raised some questions about the provision of 
				interpreting services for women who have insufficient 
				English to enable them to make informed choices.
		
		
				We understand from DHBs that an interpreting service is 
				available at the hospitals, but at a cost to independent 
				practitioners, since the Interpreting Service bills the users.
		
		
				CMDHB , for example, pays for this service for its own 
				clients out of its bulk funding. However, independent 
				
						practitioners are paid on a service
						‐
						provided basis, and there 
				
				is no provision for them to claim for interpreters.
		
		
				Many of the women that SAMCL practitioners provide a 
				
						service for fall into the lower socio
						‐
						economic bracket: the 
				
				cost to them for such a service is often prohibitive.
		
		
				The Ministry of Health was asked for clarification on the 
				following points:
		
		
				(1) Since the interpreting service is beyond the reach of 
				women who have an independent midwife, how can 
				LMC’s provide the information required to enable 
				women to make informed choices about their care, 
				as set out in the Patient’s Code of Rights ?
		
		
				(2) What are our Treaty obligations when providing 
				midwifery services to Maori women who request an 
				interpreter?
		
		
				(3) Is it a requirement that for Maori clients all the 
				information regarding their maternity experience is 
				provided in written form in the Maori language?
		
		
				Some of these questions have arisen out of feedback 
				received from the HDC office following an investigation, so 
				it is important that these issues are clarified.
		
		
				We are awaiting a response to questions 2 and 3 from the 
				Ministry’s Maori Health Directorate
		
		
				Re question 1: 
				The MOH advises that 
				
						“
						
								Providers who claim under the 
								Section 88 Notice are paid a fee which includes overheads 
								for their services.”
						
				
		
		
				We have a concern about this.
		
		
				In South Auckland, interpreters charge a minimum of 3 
				hours, at $90.00 hour. So if, say, the labour and delivery 
				takes ten hours, it will cost $900.00 for the interpreter. 
				
				
		
		
				That’s a lot of money for anyone to find. We know that 
				most of the families we look after just cannot afford that.
		
		
				So, should the LMC pay?
		
		
				For ten hours work, then, the LMC can look to receiving 
				between $61.00 and $326.00 depending on the parity of the 
				woman concerned, which by our reckoning is between 0.6c 
				and 0.33c per hour. (We suspect not many LMC’s will not 
				think it worthwhile working for that.
		
		
				And before anyone says you won’t need an interpreter for 
				that length of time, we say: you either need an interpreter 
				or you don’t. And if you need one you need one for the 
				whole time.
		
		
				We see this as a real anomaly, which results in fewer 
				choices to women.
		
		
				
						The Editors