The distance between the linguistic and cultural codes of immigrants and medical professionals hinders the access of numerous immigrant patients recently arrived in Switzerland to health care. A multidisciplinary active research carried out in five connected socio-sanitary structures in Lausanne tends to show that the wilful introduction of cultural community interpreters (CCI) correlates with a significant increase in consultations in the presence of a qualified interpreter. The fact that the interpreter is in most cases called upon by the health care professional suggests that the patient has a greater possibility to be listened to, if not heard. The limits of the role of the interpreter remains controversial: whereas a lot of medical professionals tend to see the ideal interpreter as a «tool» for word for word transposition, the CCIs wish to act as subjects in the full sense of the term.

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