“Please speak in English”

A man shared with us his family’s experience after their dying mother was admitted to a designated hospital in Northern Ontario.

On several occasions, he and his family were unable to obtain services in French when visiting their mother. They noticed that their mother received very few services in French and even found a note that asked her to “Please speak in English”.

Their mother died a few weeks after being admitted to the hospital.

We contacted various members of the hospital’s management. As a result of our intervention, measures were taken to remedy the lack of bilingual reception staff, among other things. An action plan was then developed that included:

• Developing standards for an active offer of services in French, which include identifying the language preference of patients and visitors;

• Assigning designated bilingual nurses when required;

• Implementing support measures to assist non-bilingual staff;

• Distributing documents in the patient’s language;

• Reviewing human resources management practices within the department, including evaluating employees’ language skills;

• Scheduling bilingual staff;

• Identifying designated bilingual personnel for each shift; and

• Training nursing staff on expectations regarding French language services

Learn more about the French Language Services Unit which answers questions and takes complaints about services in French.
Read about how we helped other people in our Selected cases.