Talking signs aid hospital navigation
It can be a stressful experience going into hospital, especially when you can’t find your way around, and if English isn’t your first language it can be even harder.
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust has recently installed multilingual talking signs at the main entrances to both its hospitals to help combat this.
The signs provide directions to the most visited areas in the hospitals. Simply pressing a dedicated button gives the visitor spoken directions from the main entrances to different clinical areas as well as restaurants and toilets. Directions are available in the nine languages most widely spoken by the trust's patients – Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, English, French, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish and Turkish.
The signs are positioned in the main entrances at both Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals and are in operation 24 hours a day.
The signs have been funded by Guy's and St Thomas' Charity.