Couple dubbed racists in son's health records
Published: 13 Jul 09 13:28 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/20630/20090713/
A woman has reported a hospital in western Sweden to national authorities after discovering she and her husband had been described as racists in their son's medical records.
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Three years ago, when the son was five months old, the woman rushed the boy to the hospital in an ambulance. At the hospital, they encountered a foreign doctor whom the woman was unable to understand. She asked to see a Swedish-speaking doctor, and her request was granted.
When she recently requested her son's medical journal, she read that she and her husband had were described as racists in the notations.
Hospital management is also of the opinion that the notation was inappropriate.
The woman has also reported the doctor to the police for slander, and submitted a request to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) to have her son's medical journal destroyed.
“We are not racists; we just didn't understand what the doctor said,” the mother told TTELA, adding that the notation had absolutely nothing to do with her son's medical condition.
She furthermore wondered if it had affected the family's treatment during subsequent visits to the same hospital.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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http://www.thelocal.se/15730/20081117/
This couple being labeled as racists is absurd beyond belief. Sweden can't seem to get anything right since it began its little "multicultural" experiment.
Nothing to Add.
One thing. You jumped to the idea that the problem is with the ( non svensson ) doctor not with the svensons themselves without any clue to the real story!!!!!
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
"At the hospital, they encountered a foreign doctor whom the woman was unable to understand. She asked to see a Swedish-speaking doctor, and her request was granted."
Even if the doctor completed Svenska B or further Swedish classes, if he could not be understood by his patient it was in no way racist of her to request a doctor who spoke intelligible Swedish. It is entirely the doctor's responsibility to speak fluent Swedish, not the Svenson's responsibility to understand poor Swedish. Her son's life could have been in danger if the doctor said one thing and she understood it as something else. This obviously has nothing to do with the doctor's or the patient's religion. Try reading the article that I linked above.
Doctors from inside EU do not need any language skills to work inside Sweden!
To have a doubt about our education and trust education from inside EU it is OK, we can do exams and prove our knowlge!
But to allow doctors from inside EU never spoke a single Swedish word to work directly and ask us to reach a very high level of swedish this is the real racism!
I think all forigner doctors should reach an acceptabel level of swedish before they start to work REGARDLESS to the colour of their passports!!
In the above case if the doctor was from outside EU so the family is racist because we have really a tough language education before we can work, but if the forigner doctor from inside EU I can belive that they did not understand him!!
First, you should be careful about assuming that the education is as rigorous as you think for everyone. Standards may not be applied uníformly across the board (they rarely are) especially when it concerns oral communication. Furthermore, someone's ability to speak a second language can be affected by many things, not least tiredness. I give lectures in Swedish but if I'm knackered then my vocabulary, grammar and overall fluency suffer accordingly.
I think its disgraceful that an allegation as serious as racism was appended to a medical record in this way - the doctor, or whoever wrote it, ought to be disciplined since its sneaky, unprofessional and unfair. If someone is labelled with the r word then they ought to be told about it and given an opportunity to respond.
At the hospital, they encountered a foreign doctor whom the woman was unable to understand. She asked to see a Swedish-speaking doctor, and her request was granted.
what eactly did she not understand the type of drugs to be given to the child or what exactly did she not understand before requesting for another doctor.lets not pretend like we donot know thw truth
lets also note here,it took this doctor a hitch as professional to use this comment this will show us the level of grivence and anger the doctor went through before making those notes.read your minds and count your teeth.its very simple
language is a way of communication not a way to show!
If you write Swedish to your students in the same way you write English they will never graduate!!
I describe again from my personal experince:
If the doctor from outside EU then he had studied language till a very high level and he worked for 18 months as under training doctor before he had started his job, logicaly it is not possible for him not to understand a conversation inside his job!
For a family not to accept him so they did not like his accent or his hair colour and they are RACIST!
This is my personal opinion and I have no idea if it is allowed or needed to be written or not!!
I note that you still persist with your flawed logic. Becoming a qualified doctor does not imply there won't be circumstances in which a patient may not understand a person's language and accent.
You are getting worked up about something you have not got a clue about... Firstly we do not know whether the doctor is from the EU or not. Secondly I and I am sure I am not alone, have met plenty of people who are fluent in English but their accents make them difficult to understand and I am pretty confident that the same applies to Swedish as well.
The Swedish couple were certainly facing a stressful situation and this alone can impede someone's comprehension of a difficult accent and I'm sure that they wanted to be 100% certain about what was being told to them.
We know nothing about the race/nationality of the doctor or the parents or of the doctor who took over the case - only that the parents wanted the information about their child to be given in Swedish. Not unreasonable in Sweden.
Labeling the parents as racists on the child's medical journal cannot be acceptable, however ill treated the Doctor felt. Those records could follow the child throughout it's life if the condition was serious.
http://www.thelocal.se/5932/20061229/ .
The facts there seem more clear cut than in the article we have been discussing.
I'm sure that you don't practice double standards so I look forward to your vehement denunciation of the racist.
Is this unreasonable? Not at all!
It should be just a important for the physician that his/her patient (or parents thereof) understood completely the diagnosis and any possible treatment suggested.
why did sweden invest in foreign doctors when they know they dont have swedish accent? do doctors and nurses in the hospital dont understand this particular dr or the woman is just plain insentive? why cant another nurse or staff nearby interprete instead of replacing the doctor if it is not a general trend? Is the dr african, middle eastern, danish or skånska The treatment of the dr is an insult to his profession and it is wrong of the dr to write racist in the journal. The Swedish community must be willing to compromise with foreign professionals if they really need one, just like the progressive eu countries like Norway, UK etc if they want to make head way in the future. Swedish Obama would never arise with this type of insentive behaviors. A lot of foreigners trained by Sweden are being used in Norway, US and Canada. What a waste of tax payers money
I read the article you linked!
http://www.thelocal.se/5932/20061229/
No thing to discuss!
He is a stupied person and he dose not deserve to have a practicing license!
patient is patient regardless to his name,age,sex,race,position ....etc. This is a primary medical ethics.
He did that because he is a bad person not because he is a forigner doctor as you are trying to show!
To think in that way is totaly rascim!
Few months ago I heared that a swedish gang stealed a bank.Can I consider every Swedish citizen as a theif?????
Few months ago a Swedish doctors judged in base on practising oral sex with a patient during examination and it was written in the local.Is that because he is Swedish???
Absolutely not!!!!!
when you are stupied and do not know laws and have no idea about how the health system works out so no need to share with us your silly opinions!
Sweden dose not import any doctors from the third world !
Doctors who came from there have a lot of complications to work here and they have to reach a very high levelof language and to pass difficult exams which most of qualified Swedish doctors failed to pass it in a research sample !
Second:
When a person has already a swedish practising licsence we should not look to his race either it will be racism!
Then when faced with an example of a Palestinian doctor in Sweden not wanting to treat and American because they are an American you write his behaviour off as "he is a bad person" and then accuse someone of being racist because they pointed out this case?
There is only one conclusion, the racist is YOU... and you are too stupid to see it
I did not judge a family as racist!
I do not know where from coming the forigner doctor and to convince is a big issue need a lot of proves and details ,I just analyse !
I said >in the case was the doctor from outside EU and because of doctors from outside EU go to a long tough high level courses before they can practise medicine so it is not logic not to understand the Patient then the only explanation here that they did not accept or trust him because he is a forigener!
I said also if a forigner doctor was from inside EU so it is normal for the family not to understand him because he did not go into obligatory langauge education and the family in this case can never be racist!
Do not take parts from my words!
About the doctor who refused to help a patient he is bad and racist of course.
And if he is Palestinian (No thing written about that)? Can you consider all of us bad and racist because of that??
You have just called me racist and stupied so thank you :)
The reason I posted the story was to illustrate this. I find it bizarre that Palestinian's view is that I acted in order to show that foreign doctors are racist.
Palestinian - grow up. Racism will never be defeated whilst people like you use the term so glibly. The opposite is probably the case.
I'm not sure who p*sses me off more: racists or people who cry "racist" without first thinking "what are the real facts here ?".
Thanks very much!
But our friend Mr P is going full on with the "racist card" with limited facts making assumptions based on what can only be racial profiling.
Let me ask you this, if there was an article here about someone getting stabbed in Södertälje and I responded "it must have been an Iraqi that did it" Mr P would be branding me a racist because I jumped to a conclusion based on racial profiling.
He is blinded by his own racism to the extent that he cannot see any other possibility
As for "institutional racism" bull crap. The hospitals number 1 priority is to the patient. The 5 month old child was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance and it is clearly better that a doctor, any doctor, be attending to the child rather than the hospital staff wasting their time trying to convince the parent to allow the original doctor to continue.
"According to Johansson, the doctor was a Palestinian who objected to American foreign policy in the Middle East."
Clearly the doctor is racist and this thread is showing you to be one also. As for the other 14million Palestinians, i have never encountered them, so I have not got a clue.
Either we both shoud go to Noramk to learn us what is the real defention of racism which I use as a spot diagnosis as he said!! :)
About the family and the child, it is their absolute right to refuse any doctor and no one can inforce them to have a ceartin doctor whatever is the case of the patient!
When only discussed why they did that from the simple undetailed information we got from the article!
Regards!
Just because someone has had a tough language course that they passed, it does not mean that every Swede will understand them.
I have worked in Asian immigrants in Australia who have lived there for a long time, gone though the Australian school system and university, fluent in English and yet at times I would still struggle to understand them because of their accent.
You want to believe they are racist just because that is what you expect them to be.
Ya he was Palestinain!
I did not noitce it before!
A racist Palestinian!
A bad Palesinian!
You have an information to judge him but no thing to judge me!
Anyhow if you come once as my patient be sure that you will take your complete treatment , care and respect even if you screamed in my face and shouted as a crzay racist ( I hate palestinians) ;)
Regards!
we don't know what they really said and we don't know how good/bad the doctor's swedish (with or without accent) is/was
it was a mistake to enter it into a patient's medical record. period.
Funny you should mention about being a patient, but I chose my house doctor partly on race. I don't trust Swedish doctors unless it is a text book case, so I found a private doctor who made me feel more trusting. He is Iranian
If you are right!
Sweden should stop learning swedish as a second languge and USA and UK should stop TOFEL and ILETS because no one really can change his accent!
I undersand how diffcult it is with australian accent!
I wrorked with australian staff once and I always asked them to repeat and to talk slowly! The american and candian friends did the same and did not understand every thing!
It is not the same case with Swedish and you know that as a swedish teacher!
I have been here for 2 years and I have no problems in communication !
The only problem I can face is only when some one want you not to understand and tries to make it complicated!
Regards
If it were me in the hospital, and the care I was getting was good and appropriate, I could care less if I couldn't understand what the doctor was saying. I don't understand medical jargon in English anyways...
To refuse treatment from someone based on their gender is not at all the same thing as requesting a different physician based on you not understanding what the other one is saying and you want to make sure you understand your doctor and that they understand you.
To refuse someone based on their gender is illegal in Sweden - to refuse someone based on their inability be speak Swedish is not.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:sarcasm:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We all agree that the doctor shouldn't have labeled the couple as racist in the son's records. The term is ambiguous to start with. Case in point: You mistakenly confuse discrimination based on citizenship with racism in the case of that ethically-challenged Palestinian doctors who refused to treat the American.
Pot. Kettle.
And by extension, why is it such a bad thing to segregate toilets based on race? Urinating and defecation are, by their very nature, extremely intimate.
Was that established? At this point, I think you should write "based on your inability to understand what they're saying".
Not realy so relevant to this thread, but it never fails to amuse me when I got to the Doctors :-)
i agree with jimmy james a little bit. If a doctor is deemed qualified by the hospital and can speak and write correct swedish, i do not think accent should be a reason why he should be displaced. When we go to the hospital it is not the doctor we go to meet but the representative of the hospital which is the doctor.
Very soon we would be requesting the type of police we want in emergency, the type of staff that should attend to us at the bank, chemist. also insist on svenssson teaching our children at school. Get real men we live in a multicultural world and all of us are interelatted. Ikea would have closed down if they shops only in Sweden. Most of our best footballers play outside of sweden. My point is we are family whether we like it or not.
The parents weren't buying a sofa from IKEA - they were arranging treatment for a sick child. They had every right to insist on a doctor who could communicate effectively with them. This has absolutely nothing to do with Sweden being a multicultural society. We should all be careful about overinterpreting events in terms of racism, especially when we don't know the facts.
If - and its a big if since we have no evidence of this - they acted in a racist way, the doctor should have reported this to his superiors and left it there. To place an allegation of racism against them on their child's medical record is extremely unprofessional. In my opinion, the doctor should be disciplined for this. In fact the doctor's actions here convince me that the parents did the right thing in demanding another doctor, irrespective of any communication difficulties.
When you lose your national identity surely that is a problem.
Cheers!
when you go on the street we can easily identify invandrare housing estates from the indigenous ones. In the town where i live indegenous swedish children and invandrare dont go to the same dagis. Is that what we call multicultural experiment. It must be SVerige Democrats defination of multiculturalism. i will not write on this topic again
Nyamko Sabuni springs to mind...
Why are we going so far...We are talking about a couple having a very stressful situation with a child, he was only 5 months old, do you imagine how the parent felt, the feeling that it is nothing they can do about it, and that the only person who can help there child is a doctor. I f i will have any doubt of my understanding about my child situation on a hospital because i am unable to understand the doctor, i will ask straight away for someone else. WE ARE TALKING HERE ABOUT A 5 MONTHS OLD BABY, that should have explain the situation,we all know that parent are fragile during the first cap of months due to a permanent stress and a very low amount of rest and sleep .
Part 1
i am not Swedish from with root, but Swedish from my heart, so please let go ahead and make this country even better that it is already.
Regards
Adel
It would be ok, but, I had another visit in july, but this time it was with a Swedish doctor and, as I found out, the dose I was prescribed earlier was way too strong for me. It would have damaged my liver. I was told that if I was 90 then that would be no big deal, but because I am only 34, that is too strong.
Not to sound offensive, but I just dont trust a doctor if he or she comes from outside Europe.