Hospitals are being forced to send foreign staff to English lessons because they can't understand basic phrases such as 'nil by mouth'.Nurses, cleaners and porters recruited from overseas are being dispatched on 10-week courses funded by the Government to help them improve their language skills.
Although many have a very good grasp of textbook English, they struggle with common abbreviations used on the ward such as 'bleeping a doctor' or 'doing the rounds'.
Hospital staff admit there have been 'near-disaster' cases when a porter has mistakenly delivered a meal to a patient having not understood the 'nil by mouth' sign on the bed stating he cannot eat or drink.
Although all doctors recruited from outside the EU must pass a special English language test set by the General Medical Council before they can practice, the same rules do not apply for other hospital workers.
Instead staff including nurses, cleaners and porters are usually assessed on their grasp of English at their interview.
Overseas workers at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals, Oxford are being encouraged to attend 10-week English for Speakers at Other Languages courses run at the nearby Oxford and Cherwell Valley College.
More than 70 different nationalities are employed at the trust, largely from the Philippines, Poland, Burma and the Caribbean.
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