Money for medical interpretation runs out for immigrants, refugees in Waterloo Region

The money allocated by the provincial government for interpreter services for family doctors and specialists has run out in Waterloo Region, according to the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre.

That means there will be a significant gap, as of Monday, for new immigrants and refugees when it comes to necessary care.

“We have been forced to cancel all medical interpretation assignments in Waterloo-Wellington,” said CEO Lucia Harrison.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre receives funding from Ontario Health. As of two years ago, they were getting $300,000. Even then, they said, it wasn’t enough. It was later cut in half to $150,000, leaving them in the situation they are in now.

“On average, that will mean that somewhere between 2,000 or 3,000 medical appointments, there will not be interpretation available,” Harrison said.

That money won’t replenish until April 1, the start of the new fiscal year. It also complicates things for newcomers who may be arriving with complex medical issues, especially if they’ve been staying in a refugee camp.

“We reduce re-admissions, we reduce visits to the emergency department, we reduce complications, we reduce unnecessary testing. So, I mean, the implications are huge,” Harrison explained.

Fatah Fatah is a Kurdish translator who works with the multicultural centre. He said his role is not only to relay vital information in the patient’s language, but to deliver it in an unbiased way.

“Friends or family members maybe will intervene and will give their opinion upon the situation and even say it’s very dangerous for the patient,” Fatah said.

The Centre for Family Medicine in Kitchener is also feeling the impact.

“You know, we need to fill these seats. We need to give the care that patients deserve and we’re unable to,” Wajma Attayi, the centre’s director of strategy, said Monday. “Do you see anybody here? There’s nobody here.”

She explained that eight appointments were cancelled because of the funding shortfall.

Attayi said it’s a problem that will continue until the spring.

“We cannot just play charades and guess. We have to provide care in a dignified, equitable manner,” she said.

The worry is this will put extra pressure on already-strained emergency rooms.

For Attayi, the situation hits close to home.

“My parents were refugees, so just knowing that history and seeing the struggles of my own parents, I don’t want anybody to experience what I saw them go through.”

CTV News reached out to Ontario Health for a response to the pleas for more medical interpretation funding, as well as clarification on how the funding is split up from region to region.

They said: “Ontario Health recognizes the importance of the interpreter/translation services provided through the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and will continue to fund these services as part of a contracted agreement. Funding for interpreter/translation services was part of an historic arrangement inherited by Ontario Health from the former Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network. Base funding of $150,000 from the Ministry of Health was secured for 2022-23. This amount will flow to the Regional Municipality of Waterloo annually for the provision of interpreter/translation services.”

Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife weighed in on the situation Monday afternoon in a letter to the Minister of Health.

“I am writing today to amplify calls for the urgent need for funding for medical interpretation services in Waterloo Region,” the letter reads, in part. “This is a crisis that requires an immediate solution.”