Called 119 to enquire about interpretation on behalf of a Covid + student who was told to contact them about tracing. Apparently there is no interpretation & the person I spoke to said my student has to find someone who can speak it to call (not that simple in their case). 1/

When I said I was concerned about this, the person I spoke to said the government’s line is that migrants should know they need to speak English before they ‘come to this country’. (btw: interpretation is normally available in the NHS, so this is strange anyway) 2/

Can someone explain to me how a public health crisis can be managed when the message to my student & others in the same position is ‘tough shit’? & when it’s used as an opportunity to blame migrants for not being able to access healthcare? 3/

Can I also point out that this is literally a student working really hard to learn English in a context where the #ESOL sector has suffered horrendous cuts to funding? This is of course not to say that people deserve respect on the condition that they’re learning English 4/

People want to learn English, & when they need language support with tracing to literally protect others, they should not have to put up with blame & bigotry. They should NEVER have to & there shouldn’t be any hinderance to accessing ANY healthcare 5/

I’ve been advised I can take this up with Public Health England. Feel free to join me in contacting them to say that barriers to accessing healthcare need to be at the heart of any response to a public health crisis & this is a case in point. Interpretation services are vital. 6/

Also, if the government thinks English is so important, how about it doesn’t cut funding to start with? Join us at @EFALondon to campaign for better funding for #ESOL classes. 7/