Interpreters' experiences of general practitioner-patient encounters.

OBJECTIVE: To study interpreters' experiences of problems in cross-cultural communication with special regard to the general practitioner (GP)-patient encounter.

DESIGN: A focus-group interview with authorized interpreters was carried out. A phenomenographic method was used in the analysis.

SETTING: Primary health care.

RESULTS: The interpreters displayed a number of problems mainly related to the difficulty in balancing the triad relation (GP-patient-interpreter), the role of the interpreter in relation to other healthcare staff, the time aspects of the translation procedure, and the problems of diverse health beliefs and cultural inequalities.

CONCLUSION: The interpreters notice a set of difficulties that need to be highlighted in order to improve consultations with cross-cultural GP-patient encounters.