Beijing's Hospitals to Improve Foreign Language Capabilities

Hospitals and other major public medical institutions in Beijing are taking measures to broaden their foreign language services, as reported by Xinhua. Services such as medical guidance, consultation, registration and all department signs will have translations to ease interaction with foreigners.

It’s not only the stationary facilities that will receive a major overhaul. Emergency call centers will also be able to transfer callers to foreign language services. In cooperation with Beijing’s Language and Culture University, emergency centers will immediately redirect those in need to a multilingual service line when foreigners dial the 120 or 999 emergency numbers.

The health commission is also planning on creating a medical foreign language speaking talent pool and strengthening language training programs with universities. As of now, the programs have been launched in Japanese, French and English.

[Top image via Flickr]