Medical translation

When medical documents need translating

• Continuing care in the UK: a Turkish discharge summary (epikriz), medical board report (heyet raporu), imaging report or medication report (ilaç raporu) that a GP, consultant or NHS trust needs to read before treating you.
• Professional registration: the GMC, NMC, GDC, GPhC and HCPC ask for translations of Turkish qualifications, internship certificates, certificates of good standing from the Turkish Medical Association or Ministry of Health, and employment records.
• Visa and settlement evidence: adult dependent relative applications and human-rights claims turn on medical evidence from Türkiye; the Home Office reads only the translation.
• Insurance and benefits: travel and life insurers, DWP assessments and employers’ occupational health.
• Turkish authorities: UK GP letters and hospital reports for military service health assessments, driving licence renewal or conversion, disability entitlements and court cases.
• School and childcare: Turkish vaccination records (aşı kartı) for GP registration and school admissions.

How we handle medical terminology

Turkish clinical writing mixes Turkish, Latin and English abbreviations and often relies on hospital-specific shorthand. We translate diagnoses and procedures with their ICD-style English names, keep drug names as the international non-proprietary name with the Turkish brand in brackets, convert units only where UK practice differs and always show the original figure, and reproduce laboratory tables in full rather than summarising them. Handwritten prescriptions and stamps are transcribed as far as legible and marked “[illegible]” where they are not; we do not guess a dosage. A second linguist with medical translation experience reads every document against the source. Translators work under confidentiality undertakings, and records are deleted after the retention period in our data protection policy.

Regulator requirements

The GMC asks for a complete English translation of each non-English document, translated directly from the original language, showing the translator’s or translation service’s contact details and carrying their stamp and signature. The NMC asks for certified English translations from a certified translator. Our certification meets both: every page is stamped and signed, the statement gives the company’s name, registration and contact details, and we translate from the Turkish original rather than from an intermediate version. Document-by-document guidance is on the GMC and NMC pages.

What it costs

Turkish to English from £10.00 per page and English to Turkish from £6.50 per page (1,000 characters of source text), certification included. A one-page prescription or GP letter is one page; an epikriz is usually two to four; a full hospital file is quoted as a whole with a working-translation rate for pages that do not need certification. Dense laboratory tables are counted on the characters they contain, not on layout. Express at 60% above standard is available for clinical urgency. No UK VAT is charged.

Turnaround

Short reports and prescriptions in 1–2 working days, same-day for a single page received before 11:00 UK time. Registration files of 10–20 documents typically 3–5 working days. If a clinician needs the gist of a report immediately, we can send an unrevised working translation within hours and follow with the certified version.

For Turkish authorities

UK medical reports going to a Turkish state office, for example a GP letter for military service deferment or a specialist report for a Turkish court, need a translation notarised in Türkiye. We produce that in Ankara; see notarised translation in Turkey. Note that the Turkish Consulate in London requires, for driving licence renewals handled at the consulate, a translation by a translator registered with the consulate, which we do not provide; ask us and we will point you to the right route.