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ONE OF THE PROBLEMS WHICH WE HAVE IN THE EAST SURREY Health District is, simply, language. While the proportion of the total 5 000 staff who have language difficulties cannot be said to be large, the numbers in particular specialities are high. In the nursing profession there is no real difficulty as there are examinations to be taken and a fair knowledge of English is required. When we look at the ancillary staff we find a different picture. In one of our larger hospitals, with about 2 000 employees, we have 102 staff in the domestic department and 43 in catering. In these two departments there are 48 and 11, respectively, from overseas. The countries concerned are – Spain (44), Italy (six), Portugal (three), Jamaica (three), Latvia (two), Germany (one). Many of these had virtually no knowledge of the English language when they joined the hospital.