{"id":26486,"date":"2025-06-09T05:13:42","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T02:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/?p=26486"},"modified":"2025-05-29T20:15:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T17:15:56","slug":"language-barrier-in-healthcare-harmful-to-the-patients-health-exhausting-for-the-healthcare-worker-and-expensive-for-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/previous-issues\/no-51\/language-barrier-in-healthcare-harmful-to-the-patients-health-exhausting-for-the-healthcare-worker-and-expensive-for-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Language barrier in healthcare \u2013 harmful to the patient\u2019s health, exhausting for the healthcare worker and expensive for the public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"TextSwifttaandetaINGLISE lead\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"letter-spacing: -.2pt;\">Language barriers in healthcare compromise patient safety, exhaust medical personnel, and impose substantial costs on the state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"TextSwifttaandetaINGLISE\"><span lang=\"EN-GB\" style=\"letter-spacing: -.2pt;\"> Drawing on a national survey of nearly 2,400 Estonian healthcare professionals, this study reveals systemic linguistic mismatches: while over 28% of Estonia\u2019s population speaks Russian as a mother tongue, only a third of doctors are sufficiently fluent to provide care in Russian. Younger practitioners, though proficient in English, lack Russian skills, leading to miscommunication, redundant testing, and even cancelled consultations. Professional medical interpreters are virtually absent, and ad hoc solutions\u2014colleagues, family members, or translation apps\u2014undermine confidentiality and care quality. The authors call for a sustainable, digital medical translation tool to bridge linguistic gaps, reduce inefficiencies, and uphold equitable care. The status quo is untenable: communication is not a luxury but a clinical necessity.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Language barriers in healthcare compromise patient safety, exhaust medical personnel, and impose substantial costs on the state. Drawing on a national survey of nearly 2,400 Estonian healthcare professionals, this study reveals systemic linguistic mismatches: while over 28% of Estonia\u2019s population speaks Russian as a mother tongue, only a third of doctors are sufficiently fluent to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"class_list":["post-26486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-51","topic-studies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26487,"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26486\/revisions\/26487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rito.riigikogu.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}