Spending on interpreters at most hospitals in Yorkshire has rocketed in the past five years, according to figures obtained by the BBC.

Conversely, the only trust to record a significant fall was Sheffield Teaching Hospitals where spending dropped by almost 80% from £900,095 in 2007-08 to £182,308 in 2010-11.

Barnsley experienced a slight dip from £32,000 to £31,000.

The biggest bill in the region was, not surprisingly, at Leeds Hospitals, which deals with about 24,000 requests each year.

Head of interpreting services Suzy Hansford said that in the past three years the amount being spent had actually levelled out from a point where it was growing by 10% a year.

She said that as long as someone wanted an interpreter they were entitled to one.

"Sometimes people speak good enough English to live their lives but not good enough to deal with doctors and diagnoses or things they don't quite understand.

"We are seeing an increase in demand for Eastern European languages; Polish, Czech, Slovak and some Lithuanian, which is surprising.

"A lot of that is to do with us promoting the service and more people realising they have a right to ask for an interpreter."

The Race Relations Amendment Act of 2000 puts a duty on trusts to provide accessible services, including help with language.

That was strengthened by the Equality Act 2010 which made all public sector organisations responsible for providing equal access to all services.

There is also, they say, a pragmatic need for the service. If a patient turns up and is unable to understand the extent of their condition or what medication to take, it can mean another consultant appointment and, consequently, extra cost to the NHS.

Leeds Hospitals has a register of 170 interpreters who can help with 70 different languages.

Ms Hansford said Leeds had managed to contain costs by getting its large bank of freelance interpreters on to the payroll, thus avoiding commission payments to the agencies which smaller hospitals have to use.

The register also allows management at Leeds to monitor performance closely.

Twenty-seven-year-old Martina Sebekova has done a lot of interpreting work since she came to England from Slovakia as an au pair, but now prefers to work in the NHS.

The BBC accompanied her when she was helping Czech national Otto Rybar, who has lived in Leeds for seven years, during a retinal scan at Leeds General Infirmary.

He is diabetic and needs to have regular eye scans to ensure his condition is not affecting his sight.

His correct positioning on the scanning equipment was vital and could not have been achieved correctly without his interpreter's help.

Ms Sebekova has six or seven appointments each day in all sorts of clinical and medical settings.

"Sometimes, obviously it is difficult; you don't always have lovely news to tell, so it's challenging.

"Then, on the other hand, when you see a newborn baby and happy parents that is rewarding as well."

Editor’s note: Margaret Moore (aka Coach Meg) is the co-author of “Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life.” She is the director of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital and the founder and CEO of Wellcoaches Corporation.

Primary school pupils need to have at least nine hours' sleep each night or their capacity to learn will be impaired, say researchers.

The research carried out by the Autonomous University of Barcelona examined the link between sleep and children's intellectual development.

It found that a lack of sleep damaged core skills needed for learning.

The researchers suggest parents should be taught about the importance of sleep for their children's well-being.

The study found that even those children who had eight to nine hours of sleep were more likely to struggle in school compared with children who slept for nine to eleven hours.

This threshold of nine hours as a minimum was based on an examination of the sleeping patterns of 142 six to seven year olds in a range of schools in Spain.

The study found that "memory, learning and motivation" were all disrupted by insufficient sleep or the lack of a regular bedtime routine.

There were also specific problems associated with a lack of sleep, such as in language and writing.

"The lacking hours of sleep distorts children's performance in linguistic knowledge, grammar and spelling rules, and key aspects in the organisation and comprehension of texts, to name a few examples," said Ramon Cladellas, a researcher from the university's psychology faculty.

"They are basic skills, meaning that if the pupil, due to a lack of sleep, develops problems in this area, it could have a repercussion on all subjects."

Mr Cladellas said that parents needed to be made aware of the significance of making sure their children got enough sleep.

"Nowadays, there is great concern because children are glued to the television, computers, and video games, but the same importance is not given to them going to bed at the same time every night."

This is the latest study to make a connection between children's sleep and their capacity to learn and their behaviour in school.

Research from the University of Michigan in the United States, published during the summer, found that school bullies and aggressive pupils were much more likely to be the pupils who did not get enough sleep or who were suffering from sleep disorders.

It suggested that over-tired pupils did not have the "emotional regulation necessary to control aggression".

A previous study of seven and eight year olds in Finland found that the behaviour of sleep-deprived children had many similarities with the behaviour associated with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

It found that children who slept less than eight hours were the most likely to show this disruptive behaviour.

The World Health Organization has set out a plan to tackle non-communicable diseases like heart disease, which now pose a greater global burden than infectious diseases.

WHO estimates the total cost for adopting these strategies in all low-and middle-income countries would be $11.4bn (£7.2bn) per year.

In comparison, the cumulative costs of heart diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, cancer and diabetes in poorer countries are expected to top $7 trillion (£4.4 trillion) in 2011-2025, an average of nearly $500bn (£316bn) a year, according to the World Economic Forum ref.

Many countries have already adopted the public health interventions, and have seen a marked reduction in disease incidence and mortality.

WHO monitored the progress of 38 countries taking steps to address cardiovascular disease at both the population and individual level over the space of a decade. All recorded a substantial decrease in exposure to risk, incidence of disease and death toll.

Dr Ala Alwan, assistant director-general for non-communicable diseases and mental health at WHO, said: "The challenge to these countries is tremendous, but this study proves that there are affordable steps all governments can take to address non-communicable diseases.

"The new tool will help countries with limited resources work out what the 'best buys' are and what they will cost.

"Implementing them would save literally millions of lives over the next 15 years."

Non-communicable diseases killed more than 36 million people in 2008. Cardiovascular diseases were responsible for 48% of these deaths, cancers 21%, chronic respiratory diseases 12% and diabetes 3%.

Men and women in low-income countries are around three times more likely to die of non-communicable diseases before the age of 60 than in high-income countries ref.

Global leaders are meeting for a United Nations high-level conference on non-communicable diseases.

A new organ donation law could deter people in Wales from agreeing to donate, it has been claimed.

One person dies every week awaiting a transplant in Wales.

Dr Drew, a renal consultant based in Wrexham, was a member of the NHS taskforce.

He told Eye on Wales that, having begun the process in support of presumed consent, he had changed his mind by the end of their inquiry.

"I wasn't the only person who came to the taskforce with a strong view of wanting presumed consent, and then had pause to rethink and just to think, is there any possibility it could backfire?

"I hope it won't, but there are sufficient concerns about how the matter will be handled, certainly in the press, and how the public will react to a change from organs that are given as a gift, rather than taken," he said.

"There has been a loss of trust in organisations of government, the health professions… and you cannot assume consent when consent has not been obtained.

"I think there is a possibility that that British bloody-mindedness might rear its head."

Health Minister Lesley Griffiths declined to be interviewed for Eye on Wales.

The Welsh Government said in a statement that it intends publishing a White Paper outlining a system of soft presumed consent in late October or early November; further consultation will follow, with a view to legislation being introduced in 2012.

"We welcome figures showing that in Wales, 195 patients' lives were saved or improved by an organ transplant last year," said a spokesperson.

"Sadly, however, 49 people in Wales died whilst on the waiting list and there are still more than 280 people in Wales waiting for a transplant."

"There is still a long way to go if we are to help more people in need of a transplant."

Eye On Wales is on BBC Radio Wales on Sunday, 18 September at 13:00 BST

National Drug Survey: More Americans Smoking Pot

The number of Americans using illicit drugs is rising, a new government survey shows. Nearly 9 percent of the U.S. population, or 22.6 million people, abused prescription drugs last year or regularly used marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, or inhalants, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health released Thursday. Marijuana was the most commonly used drug, with 17.4 million regular users—or 6.9 percent of the population—compared with 5.8 percent in 2007. Nearly half of kids ages 12 to 17 said it would be "fairly easy" or "very easy" to get marijuana, while one in five said it would be easy to get cocaine, and one in 10 said it would be easy to get heroin, CNN reports.

Talking to Teens About Marijuana—9 Do’s and Don’ts

Mary Jane won the popularity contest at your kid’s school last year. Students in a national survey said they strongly prefer marijuana to other drugs, and more junior high and high schoolers say they’re toking up.

The rise in 2010 was small but stood out because it registered across all three age groups sampled in the 36th annual "Monitoring the Future" survey of 46,000 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders. It also turned up at every level of use—in the last day, month, year, or ever, U.S. News reported in 2010. Seventeen percent of 8th graders, 33 percent of 10th graders, and 43 percent of 12th graders said they’d toked up at least once in their life, about one percentage point higher in all groups than in 2009. And one in 16 12th-graders got high 20 or more times in the previous month compared with about 1 in 20 last year, a jump of 25 percent. [Read more: Talking to Teens About Marijuana—9 Do's and Don'ts.]

Teens Lie About Drug Use, (And So Do Parents)

Teenagers’ confidential reports about illicit drug use are used by doctors and public health experts to measure the extent of the problem, and to help teens in trouble. But it turns out that teens fib big time in those anonymous surveys—and their parents do, too, U.S. News reported in 2010.

Researchers asked 432 African-American teenagers and their parents to participate in an anonymous survey about their use of cocaine, opiates, and marijuana, and said they would also be drug-tested. Of the 211 teenagers whose hair was tested for cocaine, 2 said they used it—while 69, or 34 percent, tested positive, according to a study in Pediatrics. Of the 244 parents tested, 15 said they had used cocaine, while 69, or 28 percent, tested positive.

The parents surveyed were pretty bad at guessing if their child was using alcohol or drugs. For instance, 9.6 percent of the parents said their teenager drank alcohol, while 25 percent of the teenagers said they did. With marijuana, 9.5 percent of parents said their teenager smoked dope, while 17 percent of the teens said they did. [Read more: Teens Lie About Drug Use, (And So Do Parents).]

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