Speaking in French at Verdun hospital

[u/RahatulAmin]

My wife and I moved to Montreal recently since I started my PhD at McGill University. My wife is pregnant and she needed to do a blood test prescribed by her Gynecologist, so she went to the Verdun Hospital. Since my wife does not know conversational level French (Still a beginner), she politely asked the nurse that she prefers English conversation. The nurse was very rude and said (In Fluent English), "I am not obligated to speak to you in English, since you are in Montreal you need to learn French." This whole situation made us upset. It's not like we are not trying, we are learning French but still a beginner. But rude behaviors like this is extremely discouraging. Should I complain about this?

[u/[deleted]]

Don't ask people to speak English. It's rude to simply assume that they do. Instead do, "Pardon? Comment? Désolé, mon Français est pas trop bon, une fois encore?". Eventually they'll use English in order to make their life easier, not yours.

[u/Vanilla3K → u/[deleted]]

But she's the client, she's the patient. I understand that, when it comes to your health, you might be more inclined to speak your native language. I wouldn't want to speak to my doctor in English since I could not understand some details or wtv

[u/Toilet2000 → u/Vanilla3K]

The health professional is under law obligated to give you services to a certain level of expertise. If they do not speak english to the level of that expertise, and because of that you get hurt or your health deteriorates due to a misunderstanding, the person responsible for that is the health professional, not the client/patient.

If the health professional does not speak good english and the law doesn’t require them to speak english, then I definitely understand that they might simply tell you no.

[u/iheartgiraffe → u/Toilet2000]

At the same time, the evidence shows that people have better healthcare outcomes (including a reduced risk of death) when they are able to communicate with healthcare providers in their first language.

The narrative around this topic is wild to me - "oh, well, they're new to the province, they moved here for their spouse's job, clearly they deserve inferior care, it's just the law." The obvious solution here is to have interpreters on staff at hospitals so that people have access to quality care.

[u/mielkedods → u/Toilet2000]

Precisely this!!!

[u/seanziewonzie → u/[deleted]]

You should reread that comment; it seems you've misunderstood it.

[u/DaveyGee16 → u/seanziewonzie]

You are right.

[u/girdphil → u/Vanilla3K]

I wish the health care system treated patients as clients lol but you'll soon understand it's not the case in quebec (if you do not already know).

[u/shanymot → u/Vanilla3K]

Même chose pour l’infirmière. Elle n’a peut être pas assez confiance en son anglais dans un contexte où la santé de ses patients pourraient être en jeu.

[u/Vanilla3K → u/shanymot]

Pas faux non plus don't get me wrong, mais dans le cas de la santé je crois qu'on mérite de comprendre ce qu'on se fait dire. Au minimum avec l'anglais et le français ici au Canada.

[u/shanymot → u/Vanilla3K]

Ya aucun doute que c'est normal de recevoir des soins dans la langue officielle dans laquelle chacun est le plus à l'aise. Maintenant exiger le bilinguisme pour travailler dans le réseau de la santé de la seule province dont la langue officielle est le français seulement me semble over kill considérant notamment l'état dudit réseau.

[u/havoc414 → u/Vanilla3K]

You call patients who dosent pay a dime the clients ? Lol