The growth in medical tourism has seen more interpreters being used to bridge communication gaps between doctors and patients in recent years, especially in private healthcare.
But at one hospital, its only full-time interpreter is making the rounds at its emergency department for a very homegrown group: Elderly patients who speak only dialects.
Ms Chew Mui Leng's fluency in four dialects - Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hainanese - all goes to making the trip to the National University Hospital less daunting for these patients.
Possibly the first dialect interpreter hired by public hospitals here, Ms Chew, 45, chats up an average of 20 patients a day. She is on hand during patients' consultations with doctors who are unable to speak their dialect.
