Pharmacies Need Translators Too

Bensonhurst Brooklyn houses one of the largest immigrant communities in New York. A few weeks ago, The New York Timescame out with an article which highlighted this ethnic resurgence through one tiny pharmacy on 18th Avenue. According to the article, “A total of 16 languages are spoken in this single storefront.”

This transitions nicely into why certain immigrant advocacy groups are making noise to ensure that all pharmacies throughout the five boroughs provide interpreters and written translations of medication instructions. The Times piece yesterday addressed a complaint saying that 16 local pharmacies were failing to meet the federal civil rights law and state health regulations which “require pharmacies to provide linguistic help to guarantee that people who speak little or no English receive equal access to health care.”