The phenomenon of migration has created the need to have interpreting services in hospitals and health centers in many countries around the world. A professional interpreter offers clear advantages over other habitual forms of interpreting which tend to be used in the doctor's office: the collaboration of bilingual family members, the figure of the doctor who speaks both languages, and the intervention of an unqualified volunteer interpreter. However, even though the Public Administration recognizes that the use of an interpreter improves the quality of the attention a foreign patient receives, and also helps the doctor to make a diagnosis and the patient to follow the treatment prescribed, economic reasons and insufficient resources stifle the announcements outlining their program. On the other hand, the difficulties entailed in having an interpreter on call are satisfactorily solved by telephone interpreting services which have been operative for more than a decade in the United States and Great Britain.