15/12/2025
Finally we have some clear explanation from CAB Spain. Thank you 🙏🏻
Interpreters for Andalucia Health Centres. Notices in some centres prompted me to call this Salud Responde this morning.
Salud Responde stated it has no record of any regional policy requiring patients to bring their own interpreter.
They confirmed the posters were not issued by them or by a regional health authority and are not an official SAS requirement.
They explained that the public health system already provides an interpretation/translation service that clinicians can access when patients do not speak or understand Spanish.
Crucially, they emphasised that patients are not obligated to hire, bring, or pay for their own interpreter to receive care.
Any requests to bring someone who speaks Spanish are appearing to be local clinic level suggestions, not a binding regional policy.
Salud Responde’s official position as conveyed to me on the phone this morning is that the interpreter posters do not reflect a regional directive, and patients are not required to bring an interpreter to receive health care.
Official translation service already exists
The SAS actually includes a tele-translation/interpretation service via Salud Responde that covers many languages and is available to clinicians to use when needed, so language support is already built into the public system.
Please download the "Salud Responde" App.
Added to respond to questions from other regions. Healthcare is a national right in Spain. Regions manage services but cannot require patients to bring an interpreter. Language difficulties do not remove the right to care.
