Transcultural and language barriers to patient care
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Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
South African Dental Association
Abstract
Communities are become increasingly multicultural and ethnically
disparate and dentists need to be alert to the diverse
challenges this may bring to their practices. This is particularly
true for South Africa where transcultural and language
barriers continue to compromise a large proportion of the
population in their access to health services and quality dental
care. These challenges may lead to misunderstandings,
communication problems and on occasions, breakdowns in
the professional relationships which have little or nothing to
do with the dentistry itself. Transcultural issues need to be
managed with fairness, sensitivity and respect. The Patients'
Rights Charter provides that patients should have access to
health care and the right to health information that includes
guidelines on the availability of health services and how best
to use those services. Further, such information shall be in
a language understood by the patient. The National Health
Act (Act 61 of 2003) emphasises this latter requirement and
states that "The healthcare provider must, where possible,
inform the user, as contemplated in subsection (1), in a language
that the user understands and in a manner which
takes into account the user's level of literacy".
Description
Keywords
Ethnic diversity, Dental practice, South Africa, National Health Act (Act 61 of 2003), Language
Citation
Naidoo, S. (2014). Transcultural and language barriers to patient care. South African Dental Journal, 69 (9): 425-426