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Language barrier between Cuban doctors, patients ‘being addressed’

Feb 12, 2010 News

Intended to address the evident language barrier between Cuban doctors and local patients, the Ministry of Health has been seeking to bridge the gap with the influx of Guyanese graduate doctors. Minister within the Health Ministry, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, made this disclosure during an interview with this newspaper recently.
Several concerns have been raised, suggesting that the Cuban doctors who have been supporting the operation of the health care system are not always able to relate efficiently with patients. While admitting that there are some Cuban doctors who are not efficient in their communication, the Minister noted that the problem may be related to the fact that the foreigners are versed in Standard English.
“Because they were taught proper English, sometimes communicating with our people could be a challenge. When they hear some of our creolese they sometimes question if we really speak English…So this is a mutual difficulty,” the Minister explained.
“We have been looking at these concerns. And what we do know is that the doctors who are selected to come here must have certain language competency before they get here. A significant portion of them
have worked in other countries like South Africa as well as some small islands in the Caribbean, and we are aware that some have good language skills.”
However, there are the isolated cases where patients mistake Cuban technicians, who are not very fluent in English, for doctors.
According to the Minister, Cubans are usually “dressed for the occasion in their white coats” thus patients may not be able to differentiate.
For this reason, he said that the Ministry has put in place measures to ensure that young graduate doctors work closely with the Cuban doctors.
And this move, Dr Ramsaran said, has already started to bear fruit. “We found that once they have been in Guyana for some time, and because they are very friendly and mix with the Guyanese, they even learn the slangs.”
With the assistance of Cuban doctors in the local public health system, the Ministry of Health has over the years been able to train scores of doctors who are already helping to boost the delivery of health care.
Dr Ramsaran stressed that the need for added human resource is required, as government has over the years increased the infrastructural capacity which will soon be manned by local experts.
He mentioned the diagnostic centres at Suddie, Leonora, Diamond and Mahaicony along with new facilities at Lethem, Linden and Mabaruma.

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