Sunday, March 04, 2007

Parlez-vous Anglais?

Making the headlines on the PM programme on Radio 4 on Friday evening was the news that doctors coming into this country from within the EU don't have to pass a language test (unlike doctors coming from outside the EU).

The news hit the headlines because a French doctor calling an ambulance for a patient said that he was asleep rather than unconscious; the patient later died.

Now, as Wogan would say, 'Is it me?' Surely an interview should be enough to enable an applicant's qualifications for a job to be assessed reasonably well, including his ability to make himself understood or to understand the patient. And if that language skill is lacking then he isn't the best person for the job, no matter what his medical qualifications may be.

About 23 years ago I was ambulanced to hospital in the night with a threatened miscarriage. I don't know where the doctor who admitted me came from but I had to ask him to repeat each question he asked me. With the last question, 'dysmuk?' I had to ask him to repeat it so many times I was almost in tears before finally the nurse said, 'He's asking you if you smoke.'

In that instance my life didn't depend on it; and the miscarriage was probably too far progressed for it to have made any difference to my child's survival. But emotional, distressed and on my own, it was the last thing I wanted.

I am aware though that that was his accent rather than his inability to speak the language. He could have been Glaswegian or even broad Welsh and, particularly in the state I was, I wouldn't have understood.

I'm sure the French doctor in Friday's story has blamed himself though whether it was the delay that caused the death wasn't stated. But what was the telephone operator thinking? Didn't it occur to him that asking for an ambulance for a sleeping patient was a strange thing? Didn't he think of asking for clarification?

2 comments:

Clare said...

when I broke my toe at school, I had an India doctor sew it back together. He was very competent, but failed to explain adequately that I was supposed to have 5 days bed rest, and not to jerk it around unnecessarily. I hopped around all weekend, and mum took me back to A&E on the Monday (2 days later) to ask if I could please have some crutches, and could they rebandage it as it was bleeding again. They had to restitch the blooming thing which was agony, and all because I didn't understand that i was supposed to not move....Again, not life threatening, but still, fairly annoying/distressing.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

How very distressing for the patient's family. With regard to the interview, they should have a linguist on the panel, who would be able to pick up on poor tense use, etc., which medical people might not.