http://www.synesthesia.co.uk/blog/archives/world/000099.php
It would be good if refugee doctors while retraining could help with translations at surgeries. They could talk to a group of people, saving time before they go to see a Doctor:
Guardian April 2002 Dr McAvoy in Sheffield has 3 translators, but has had to close his doors due to overdemand.
"The standard time for a planned consultation is 10minutes. With an interpretor present it takes 20. But his patients between them speak 37 languages - so if it is Turkish, Russian, Kurdish or Farsi, then they do the translation on the phone using a service provided by the Primary Care Trust, passing the receiver between them. It can easily take one and a half hours. "
The NHS can be a frustrating place to work, but when people face problems such as these, it is little wonder that so many can put up with it all.
It is obvious to me now that what the NHS lacks is time. For sure, they are short of money, people, buildings etc, but where these shortages really show up is in lack of time available for the front line staff to do what they really want to do.
Technology can and should play a major role in delivering this time back, but then we hit another brick wall. Because of the lack of spending in IT in the NHS over the last decade, parts of the infrastructure are really beyond useful use. For us as Groove developers it has been frustrating when faced with Windows 3.11 machine still being used. Ironically, GWS may make it easier for us, but really....
3:00:56 PM 
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