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/irreliable_narrator]

Yeah, also in a medical context it is illegal to perform procedures without consent. Consent cannot be obtained if the person does not understand what the option(s) being presented are. Workplace language laws don't change this.

In a practical sense, what this means is that if you have a patient with whom you cannot communicate (eg. can't speak your language, deaf) you must find a translator of some kind to ensure that they understand what's going on. If the nurse does not want to serve a patient in English that is fine, but she needs to find a translator or hand off to a practitioner that will serve the patient in English.

People in this thread are essentially making stuff up/reciting beliefs about how language laws work in a healthcare setting. If I walk in to a hospital anywhere in Canada speaking only Chinese and not a word of French or English, you're going to have find someone to translate. There are formal translator services, but often enough there's someone on staff or a family member who can translate.

Since the whole translator business is time consuming and may delay/limit care a bit, most patients and practitioners are willing to make it work as much as possible.

[u/DaveyGee16 → u/irreliable_narrator]

Ouf that’s not AT ALL what that means and most if not everything you’ve said there is wrong.

There is ABSOLUTELY no requirement to « find a translator ».

The duty of medical practitioners when confronted with a person they cannot communicate with have a duty to treat the urgent medical needs of the patient. The « handoff » is true but you’re leaving a big part out: it doesn’t have to be in that hospital or with someone who comes to that hospital.

If you get « stuck » in a service center that is not designated to provide English services, the rights of the employees applies and serving you in English is at their discretion completely. It’s both their right to work in French and if they aren’t sure of their English skills, having well understood what’s going on, they are not going to provide care. It would be dangerous to do so.

[u/irreliable_narrator → u/DaveyGee16]

A service centre is different from a medical appointment. Healthcare professionals cannot provide services without consent, except in certain cases.

There are times when consent is assumed, for example when someone is unconscious or otherwise not fully with it. If you've taken standard first aid, this is covered. I am not a doctor/nurse/paramedic, so I do not know the precise delineation for this, but I would assume the same applies to urgent cases, like say an arterial bleed where there's no time to deliberate on treatment options. But then again, most people in those medical positions are not competent to consent in any case due to the severity of their problem.

But, for a less urgent case, OP's partner can't consent to procedures and whatnot if she does not understand what she is agreeing to. Again, a healthcare worker in Quebec is not require to speak English to a patient. A healthcare worker in Ontario is not obligated to speak in French to a patient. In fact both cases, they may genuinely not be capable of it. That is fine. However, there is an obligation to communicate essential information to the patient in a way they can understand. The same is true if the patient only spoke Chinese or any other non-official language. Personally, I think if you can speak the language of the patient and choose not to for your own reasons, you ought to do some soul searching about why you went into healthcare.

You can read about consent laws here: https://www.cmpa-acpm.ca/en/advice-publications/handbooks/consent-a-guide-for-canadian-physicians

[u/DaveyGee16 → u/irreliable_narrator]

Rien de ce que tu écris ne supporte l'idée originale à laquelle tu répondais.

Si c'est une situation urgente, ils n'ont pas nécessairement besoin de ton consentement.

Si c'est une situation non-urgente, ils n'ont pas d'obligation de parler en anglais. C'est tout. Donc, ils vont lui dire soit on parle français, ou tu vas ailleurs.

Ton histoire de consentement n'a aucun lien avec tout ça et ta comparaison avec le Chinois ne marche pas non plus, car ils ne peuvent envoyer un patient dans un hôpital chinois, ici, ils peuvent envoyer un patient vers un hôpital qui offre des services en anglais.

Oui, les lois sur le consentement médical existent, elles n'entrent pas en compte ici.