BOSSES at Andover, Basingstoke and Winchester’s hospitals spent more than £70,000 on translation services in just two years, the Advertiser can reveal.

This paper submitted a Freedom of Information Act request which shows Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) forks out tens of thousands of pounds a year on translators.

It spent £30,786.09 in 2012/13 and £41,319 in 2013/14. Data for previous years was not available as HHFT only came into effect in January 2012 following the merging of two trusts.

The trust said it could not supply a list of languages which were translated, but said that in 2013/14 a total of nine different translators and agencies were used.

A spokesman for HHFT said: “Communication between our patients and our doctors and nurses is key to a patient’s recovery.

We ask a patient’s family to help us communicate with patients who do not speak English as much as possible and when it’s appropriate.

“Sometimes it is necessary to use a translation service.

Patients who are not eligible for free NHS treatment are charged for their care.”

The news comes weeks after the Advertiser reported that the trust had slipped further into the red following a challenging winter.

It is now running at a deficit of £4.4m for the financial year to date, compared to the predicted surplus of £1.3m, meaning it is now £5.7m behind its own financial plan.

Hugely increased staff costs are largely to blame for the slide into debt, with these currently £8.1m higher than they were last year. In December the trust brought in 40 agency staff to help cope with the influx of patients, at a cost of £400,000 – an average of £10,000 for each person to work the month.

It has also emerged that HHFT has been fined more than £1.1m so far for the year to date by local clinical commissioning groups (CGCs), after incurring financial penalties for missing targets relating to referral to treatment and waiting times.

The trust’s figures are far higher than Test Valley Borough Council’s spending on translation services.

TVBC has forked out a modest £603 since 2011, with spending peaking in 2012/13 when £318 was shelled out on translators.

The most common translations involved Polish, Portuguese and Nepalese.