'Prescribe English lessons to cut depression' says GP

Dr Kate Adams, a GP in London, said many of her patients have been in this country for more than 20 years yet speak little English.

Not only do they need expensive translators, they are more likely to suffer depression because of their social isolation, she added.

"If doctors can prescribe gym classes for depression, is it really so far-fetched to suggest that we should also be prescribing English classes?" she asks in the British Medical Journal.

"Translation services will always need to be available for elderly people whose English is poor, and for new arrivals, but at a time when the NHS is facing a huge financial crisis, is it in anyone's interests to see the cost of translation services increasing?"

Dr Adams is calling for high-profile campaigns around the UK to encourage people to learn English. The plea follows a debate sparked by the Commission on Integration and Cohesion. The Government body suggested this week that immigrants should undergo language tests before being allowed into the country.

Dr Adams, who practises in Hackney, one of the poorest London boroughs, said patients' legal right to translation services in the UK is unclear but immigrants also have responsibilities to their adopted community.

"The provision of translation services is inadvertently compounding some of the underlying health and social problems that we are being asked to help with," she said.

"Patients not able to communicate effectively are at risk, and this is a patient safety issue." Surveys show 2.3million living in Britain speak a language other than English at home. Many who have lived here for decades speak little English, which affects their job prospects and chances of socialising, she said.

Women who speak little English are particularly at a disadvantage as they often remain at home and are denied the opportunities men in the family get to learn the language, she added.

But Dr David Jones, a GP in Tottenham, which he describes as "a deprived inner city area" in North London, disagreed with Dr Adams in the BMJ. He said it was not a doctor's job to encourage patients to acquire language skills.

He added: "I believe that more money should be spent on providing a comprehensive language service and on supporting the doctors and hospitals to use it. This is because there are clinical consequences when interpreters are not available or not used."