**The bilingualism of the services in Brussels hospitals remains a problem. That is why the Flemish Parliament organised a hearing this Wednesday. One of the speakers was Luc D’Hooghe, honorary president of the Brussels GPs. For him, bilingualism is a matter of respect, but also essential for good healthcare. “Language is as important for diagnosis as a stethoscope.”**
At the Brussels and Vlaamse Rand Committee of the Flemish Parliament, several speakers came forward, including Marc Noppen, CEO of the UZ Brussel. He showed an email about a Dutch-speaking woman from Dilbeek who had fallen at the beginning of April, and was taken to the Erasmus hospital against her will. The family was not informed for two days, precisely because of the language barrier, Noppen suspected. The woman died, and only then was the family informed.
According to Luc D’Hooghe, who was present at the hearing as a GP in Forest and honorary president of the Brussels GPs, and who was the sharpest critic of the lack of bilingualism, this is not an isolated case.
“Of course we cannot say whether this lady died because they could not speak Dutch in the hospital. We know little about the cause of death. But it is not the first time something like this has happened. If the patient is lucky, the hospital calls us, and we can explain to them what the patient is suffering from.”
**So in general, bilingualism in Brussels hospitals is still poor?**
Luc D’Hooghe: Yes. There has been an improvement, but you have to be lucky. In emergency departments, for example, which have to be bilingual, this is not always the case. With the exception of the UZ Brussel, the Europa hospitals and Sint-Jan, almost everything in Brussels concerning pregnancy, births and post-natal periods is unilingually French. In the Sint-Pietersziekenhuis, for example, there are a few gynaecologists who speak Dutch, but the follow-up with paediatricians or nurses is in French. There, the report may not even be written in Dutch, even though that is the patient’s language. This is because the other doctors are not bilingual.
**You gave some other services as an example, which are in practice monolingual French.**
D’Hooghe: Intensive care is unilingually French everywhere except in the UZ Brussel. As far as rehabilitation is concerned, only Scheutbos is still acceptable. And I’m not even talking about compulsory admission. A patient of mine from Ruisbroek was admitted to Saint-Luc with a psychosis. He smashed everything up there because he wasn’t understood.
**You also said that Kind & Gezin is not allowed at the bedside in some hospitals.**
D’Hooghe: That was the case for a long time in St Peter’s Hospital, I don’t know if it still is. That place at the bedside was reserved for the French-speaking counterpart ONE. But it must be said that Kind & Gezin is also reducing its services in Brussels.
**How do you know all this? Are there any studies on the subject?**
D’Hooghe: No, I know this from my own experience. I have been a GP in Brussels for 43 years and have seen quite a bit in the meantime.
**But perhaps these are anecdotes that cannot be generalised.**
D’Hooghe: The directors of the hospitals mentioned above were present at the hearing. They did not contradict me.
**Those directors did indicate that they themselves were committed to language lessons in the hospital itself.**
D’Hooghe: The hospitals that were present at the hearing were the best of the class. And there are also improvements. In most hospitals, the management is now at least partly Dutch-speaking, so there is more attention for bilingual services. Some hospitals are also aware that the number of Dutch-speaking patients is declining, as these patients no longer feel like going to a Brussels hospital.
**This in turn reduces the need for hospital staff to learn Dutch. After all, there is nobody to speak it with.**
D’Hooghe: That is indeed a vicious circle, because as a result, fewer Dutch-speaking patients go to hospitals, and so on. On top of that, Dutch-speaking doctors prefer to work in Flanders, because they are paid more there, and because in Brussels they risk ending up in a monolingual French environment.
**How can we break this vicious circle?**
D’Hooghe: The European Hospitals communicate which doctors can speak Dutch. Then you have the feeling that you can go there, and many people will take that step. In addition, the mentality in Brussels has to change. The negative atmosphere surrounding the other language must be eliminated, and politicians must take the lead in this. Like Emir Kir for instance, the mayor of Sint-Joost-ten Node (independent, ed.). He has learned Dutch in just a few years. Language is about respect, common sense and good manners. Addressing someone in their language, especially if they are a patient, is treating them correctly.
**Yet the willingness to learn Dutch is low.**
Only around 30 of the 1,467 French-speaking GPs on duty are prepared to take language lessons. About 200 are said to be bilingual, because they went to school in Dutch or were raised bilingual at home. The fact that so few GPs take extra language classes is, I think, still down to that mentality.
**What do you expect from politicians now?**
D’Hooghe: That the competent ministers, Elke Van den Brandt (Groen, Gezondheid) and Sven Gatz (Open VLD, Meertaligheid), focus more on healthcare, and on guaranteeing bilingualism there. But also that the other national language is taught to pupils and students again, so that they can express themselves fluently in the other language, because many Dutch speakers can’t speak French anymore either.
**The hospitals now provide language lessons.**
D’Hooghe: But that is not their job. As long as Brussels doesn’t promote bilingualism, and as long as people simply resign themselves to not being able to find a Dutch teacher, for example, nothing much will change. So it starts at school, but language should also be part of the training of nurses, physiotherapists and doctors. For if a French-speaking person breaks his leg in Knokke or Ostend, you can at least question him in his own language. And vice versa, the same goes for Flemish people who have a problem in the Ardennes.
Language is important, just as important as a stethoscope. A wrong anamnesis (questions the doctor asks the patient, ed.) leads to a wrong diagnosis, which of course reduces the outcome. It wouldn’t be the first time that thyroid tests were started because a patient reported having a ‘krop in de keel’.
I am shocked
It’s an old problem and a big problem for dutch speaking people in and close to Brussels. It’s hard enough to communicate what’s the issue in your own language, even if you speak the other language reasonably well, it’s still a big hurdle. As an adult I can deal with it, but for children it’s just traumatising if no-one in the ambulance or MUG team understands a word of dutch.
I understand that it’s hard enough as it is to find people and adding the requirement of being bi-lingual is just impossible. But really, a lot of native french speakers in and around Brussels don’t even have the most basic skills in dutch, you could as well speak Chinese for all the good it will do you. A bit more focus on dutch during education might help so they would at least understand the dutch words for basic body parts and some useful concepts they encounter during their job.
I remember last time I was forced to go to a hospital in Brussels, there was no one I could rely on to diagnose myself in my mother tongue.
This is indeed not only a lack of respect but also a dangerous situation which should be remedied.
I also got my invoice in French, which I happily refused to pay until they arranged for a certified translation (which took the better part of 6 months and a lot of letters back and forth).
Much more resources should be dedicated to promoting multilingualism for precisely these reasons, instead of segregating everything artificially along (politically decided) languages. If you segregate your university (e.g. Leuven), the next generation of medicine students will be less bilingual. Belgian univesities are – by law – very hostile towards courses taught in other languages and political boundaries make it hard for integrated programs. And once someone is a working doctor or nurse they really do not have the time or energy to take classes at night after their 3rd shift.
This works in all directions though, I’ve witnessed Polish patients struggle because the secretary refused to speak anything other than Dutch. That shit has no place in a hospital.
Someone should explain why flemish hospitals have been doing this successfully for a long time (without being mandated to), but Brussels hospitals fail, whereas they are obligated to (except for UZ brussel).
As someone working in the only ‘Dutch’ hospital in Brussels (UZ jette), it is absolutely awful. Every single one of our doctors and nurses are required to speak French too, which is normal since we work in Brussels but communication with other docs in Brussels is always in French bc they can’t speak Dutch.
We often have problems with our Dutch-speaking patients if they need a transfer to another hospital or revalidation or nursing home in Brussels bc the people working there do not speak a word of Dutch. I do not understand why they just don’ t learn it.
I barely knew any French before I came to Brussels. I live here for 4 years now and I speak French with about 70% of my patients. Granted, it’s not very fluent and definitely not perfect, but I can understand them fine and they understand me fine.
Previous Brussels hospital worker here: I applied for language courses to perfect my dutch and was told that it was only available for A-proficiency levels (I was B2 so was told to fuck off). So yeah, still a problem.
​
There used to be a specific regional platform to learn dutch, available for hospital workers and some public servants called NL@City but it got shut down last year I think.
Ik zen al content als ze Frans kunnen.
Bilingual makes no sense in Brussels. Seems like more people speak english, arab, turk, polish, romanian or bosnian than Femish. Let’s stick to English and make it an official language next to French and Flemish.
11 comments
**The bilingualism of the services in Brussels hospitals remains a problem. That is why the Flemish Parliament organised a hearing this Wednesday. One of the speakers was Luc D’Hooghe, honorary president of the Brussels GPs. For him, bilingualism is a matter of respect, but also essential for good healthcare. “Language is as important for diagnosis as a stethoscope.”**
At the Brussels and Vlaamse Rand Committee of the Flemish Parliament, several speakers came forward, including Marc Noppen, CEO of the UZ Brussel. He showed an email about a Dutch-speaking woman from Dilbeek who had fallen at the beginning of April, and was taken to the Erasmus hospital against her will. The family was not informed for two days, precisely because of the language barrier, Noppen suspected. The woman died, and only then was the family informed.
According to Luc D’Hooghe, who was present at the hearing as a GP in Forest and honorary president of the Brussels GPs, and who was the sharpest critic of the lack of bilingualism, this is not an isolated case.
“Of course we cannot say whether this lady died because they could not speak Dutch in the hospital. We know little about the cause of death. But it is not the first time something like this has happened. If the patient is lucky, the hospital calls us, and we can explain to them what the patient is suffering from.”
**So in general, bilingualism in Brussels hospitals is still poor?**
Luc D’Hooghe: Yes. There has been an improvement, but you have to be lucky. In emergency departments, for example, which have to be bilingual, this is not always the case. With the exception of the UZ Brussel, the Europa hospitals and Sint-Jan, almost everything in Brussels concerning pregnancy, births and post-natal periods is unilingually French. In the Sint-Pietersziekenhuis, for example, there are a few gynaecologists who speak Dutch, but the follow-up with paediatricians or nurses is in French. There, the report may not even be written in Dutch, even though that is the patient’s language. This is because the other doctors are not bilingual.
**You gave some other services as an example, which are in practice monolingual French.**
D’Hooghe: Intensive care is unilingually French everywhere except in the UZ Brussel. As far as rehabilitation is concerned, only Scheutbos is still acceptable. And I’m not even talking about compulsory admission. A patient of mine from Ruisbroek was admitted to Saint-Luc with a psychosis. He smashed everything up there because he wasn’t understood.
**You also said that Kind & Gezin is not allowed at the bedside in some hospitals.**
D’Hooghe: That was the case for a long time in St Peter’s Hospital, I don’t know if it still is. That place at the bedside was reserved for the French-speaking counterpart ONE. But it must be said that Kind & Gezin is also reducing its services in Brussels.
**How do you know all this? Are there any studies on the subject?**
D’Hooghe: No, I know this from my own experience. I have been a GP in Brussels for 43 years and have seen quite a bit in the meantime.
**But perhaps these are anecdotes that cannot be generalised.**
D’Hooghe: The directors of the hospitals mentioned above were present at the hearing. They did not contradict me.
**Those directors did indicate that they themselves were committed to language lessons in the hospital itself.**
D’Hooghe: The hospitals that were present at the hearing were the best of the class. And there are also improvements. In most hospitals, the management is now at least partly Dutch-speaking, so there is more attention for bilingual services. Some hospitals are also aware that the number of Dutch-speaking patients is declining, as these patients no longer feel like going to a Brussels hospital.
**This in turn reduces the need for hospital staff to learn Dutch. After all, there is nobody to speak it with.**
D’Hooghe: That is indeed a vicious circle, because as a result, fewer Dutch-speaking patients go to hospitals, and so on. On top of that, Dutch-speaking doctors prefer to work in Flanders, because they are paid more there, and because in Brussels they risk ending up in a monolingual French environment.
**How can we break this vicious circle?**
D’Hooghe: The European Hospitals communicate which doctors can speak Dutch. Then you have the feeling that you can go there, and many people will take that step. In addition, the mentality in Brussels has to change. The negative atmosphere surrounding the other language must be eliminated, and politicians must take the lead in this. Like Emir Kir for instance, the mayor of Sint-Joost-ten Node (independent, ed.). He has learned Dutch in just a few years. Language is about respect, common sense and good manners. Addressing someone in their language, especially if they are a patient, is treating them correctly.
**Yet the willingness to learn Dutch is low.**
Only around 30 of the 1,467 French-speaking GPs on duty are prepared to take language lessons. About 200 are said to be bilingual, because they went to school in Dutch or were raised bilingual at home. The fact that so few GPs take extra language classes is, I think, still down to that mentality.
**What do you expect from politicians now?**
D’Hooghe: That the competent ministers, Elke Van den Brandt (Groen, Gezondheid) and Sven Gatz (Open VLD, Meertaligheid), focus more on healthcare, and on guaranteeing bilingualism there. But also that the other national language is taught to pupils and students again, so that they can express themselves fluently in the other language, because many Dutch speakers can’t speak French anymore either.
**The hospitals now provide language lessons.**
D’Hooghe: But that is not their job. As long as Brussels doesn’t promote bilingualism, and as long as people simply resign themselves to not being able to find a Dutch teacher, for example, nothing much will change. So it starts at school, but language should also be part of the training of nurses, physiotherapists and doctors. For if a French-speaking person breaks his leg in Knokke or Ostend, you can at least question him in his own language. And vice versa, the same goes for Flemish people who have a problem in the Ardennes.
Language is important, just as important as a stethoscope. A wrong anamnesis (questions the doctor asks the patient, ed.) leads to a wrong diagnosis, which of course reduces the outcome. It wouldn’t be the first time that thyroid tests were started because a patient reported having a ‘krop in de keel’.
I am shocked
It’s an old problem and a big problem for dutch speaking people in and close to Brussels. It’s hard enough to communicate what’s the issue in your own language, even if you speak the other language reasonably well, it’s still a big hurdle. As an adult I can deal with it, but for children it’s just traumatising if no-one in the ambulance or MUG team understands a word of dutch.
I understand that it’s hard enough as it is to find people and adding the requirement of being bi-lingual is just impossible. But really, a lot of native french speakers in and around Brussels don’t even have the most basic skills in dutch, you could as well speak Chinese for all the good it will do you. A bit more focus on dutch during education might help so they would at least understand the dutch words for basic body parts and some useful concepts they encounter during their job.
I remember last time I was forced to go to a hospital in Brussels, there was no one I could rely on to diagnose myself in my mother tongue.
This is indeed not only a lack of respect but also a dangerous situation which should be remedied.
I also got my invoice in French, which I happily refused to pay until they arranged for a certified translation (which took the better part of 6 months and a lot of letters back and forth).
Much more resources should be dedicated to promoting multilingualism for precisely these reasons, instead of segregating everything artificially along (politically decided) languages. If you segregate your university (e.g. Leuven), the next generation of medicine students will be less bilingual. Belgian univesities are – by law – very hostile towards courses taught in other languages and political boundaries make it hard for integrated programs. And once someone is a working doctor or nurse they really do not have the time or energy to take classes at night after their 3rd shift.
This works in all directions though, I’ve witnessed Polish patients struggle because the secretary refused to speak anything other than Dutch. That shit has no place in a hospital.
Someone should explain why flemish hospitals have been doing this successfully for a long time (without being mandated to), but Brussels hospitals fail, whereas they are obligated to (except for UZ brussel).
As someone working in the only ‘Dutch’ hospital in Brussels (UZ jette), it is absolutely awful. Every single one of our doctors and nurses are required to speak French too, which is normal since we work in Brussels but communication with other docs in Brussels is always in French bc they can’t speak Dutch.
We often have problems with our Dutch-speaking patients if they need a transfer to another hospital or revalidation or nursing home in Brussels bc the people working there do not speak a word of Dutch. I do not understand why they just don’ t learn it.
I barely knew any French before I came to Brussels. I live here for 4 years now and I speak French with about 70% of my patients. Granted, it’s not very fluent and definitely not perfect, but I can understand them fine and they understand me fine.
Previous Brussels hospital worker here: I applied for language courses to perfect my dutch and was told that it was only available for A-proficiency levels (I was B2 so was told to fuck off). So yeah, still a problem.
​
There used to be a specific regional platform to learn dutch, available for hospital workers and some public servants called NL@City but it got shut down last year I think.
Ik zen al content als ze Frans kunnen.
Bilingual makes no sense in Brussels. Seems like more people speak english, arab, turk, polish, romanian or bosnian than Femish. Let’s stick to English and make it an official language next to French and Flemish.
As we say Brussels is not Belgium.