I found out today that Diabetes UK, the diabetes charity founded by H.G. Wells, is now producing leaflets about diabetic retinopathy in a variety of languages. Oddly for an organisation started by the author of The War of the Worlds, they're not yet producing one in Martian, but as luck would have it, only a small percentage of my patients act like they're on another planet.

For the rest, this is fantastic news. It means I can stop doing the British thing of simply raising my voice and pointing furiously whenever I'm faced with a patient who doesn't speak English.

BengaliThat might look like the sort of thing David Beckham would have tattooed on his arm, but it's actually the Bengali for retinopathy.

And on the right there is the word maculopathy in Gujarati. That means something to 46 million people worldwide. Although I haven't screened them all yet. I do think other languages are far more pretty to look at than English though. I'd be happy if I'd produced that in art class.

Anyway, the leaflets are available for download by clicking here. I'll be printing out a supply and keeping them with me at all times. It'll give me something different to point at when I'm struggling to make myself understood.