A pilot project, the National Telephone Interpreting Service has already garnered praise for its practical and helpful intervention in emergency situations – and not only in hospitals.

Speakers of languages from Arabic to Serbian to Italian are on call, ready to interpret into and from Switzerland’s three official languages – German, French and Italian – at a moment’s notice.

As fast as the interpreters are connected, they are just as abruptly disconnected.  Noureddine was off the phone as soon as she had finished talking the young mother through the birth, her services no longer needed. She never found out if the baby was born healthy, or if it was a boy or a girl.

It is not only at the beginning of life that the interpreters are called on for assistance –psychiatric clinics also make regular use of the service to communicate with distraught persons and hinder possible suicide attempts.

“We translate for emergency rooms, all kinds of hospitals, general practitioners, pharmacies, private clinics, prisons, communities, and fire and police departments,” says Sanja Lukić, head of the national telephone interpretation service. More.

See: swiss.info