Language barrier shouldn’t stop Cubans from treating Kenyans

Lamu County Referral Hospital Medical Superintendent Ahmed Farid (centre) with two Cuban doctors at the Lamu King Fahad Hospital on July 2, 2018. One would expect that Kenyan doctors will cooperate with their Cuban counterparts in communicating and helping deliver quality health services. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The Cubans are not on diplomatic posting that is normally characterised by aloofness.
  • They will serve in remote outposts characterised by hard scrabble existence of deprived and poor citizens.
  • Devolved units expect to hire translators and interpreters (if they have not hired yet), to bridge the communication gaps.

The politics of translation has been thrust into the national arena just as the Cuban doctors settle in their various postings around the country.

Miffed Kenyan medics now have a perfect staircase wit. They cite language barrier as a possible hindrance to delivery of medical care expected of their Cuban counterparts. The hiring of county health translators and interpreters, if done, will usher in a new type of communication.

The greatest threat to the success of Cuban doctors is not from the patients. It’s not language.

The greatest possible impediment is engineered, internal and voluntary sabotage from our own doctors, manipulation of systems and human relations. Language barrier is just but an alibi.

REMOTE OUTPOSTS

The Cubans are not on diplomatic posting that is normally characterised by aloofness, an ivory tower posture and desk top knowledge of the country.

Instead, they will serve in remote outposts characterised by hard scrabble existence of deprived and poor citizens battered and neglected by a decrepit health system.

Critics of the initiative claim language barrier will hinder communication. And that poor communication may lead to misdiagnosis, wrong prescription and treatment. Well! Why are we experiencing worrying cases of misdiagnosis and wrong treatment from our very own Kenyan doctors?

Even with crippling systemic, financial and human resource constraints, medics have also been part of the current maladies in the health sector.

Thankfully, county governments have welcomed the Cubans.

TRANSLATORS

To silence critics, the devolved units expect to hire translators and interpreters (if they have not hired yet), to bridge the communication gaps. One hopes these will not be the run-of-the-mill translators usually seen hollering and ‘translating’ in religious street rallies.

Professionals hired to interpret and translate into and from local languages are a critical cog in communicating delivery of health. They find themselves thrust at a profession that stands at the confluence of salvation and condemnation, life and death, recalling the high standards of professionalism and an elevated sense of ethics in the discharge of their duty.

They must exhibit cultural open mindedness to bridge that gap between Cubans and locals. And be able to seize cultural and linguistic subtleties and complexities from both the doctor and the patient.

They must have the capacity to interpret verbal and non-verbal communication while remaining independent and impartial.

CONFIDENTIALITY

There are many factors to take into account when hiring these professionals. Not least is the delicate issue of patient confidentiality. And an ability to empathise in communication.

Yet, it may also be an opportunity to absorb the many trained health professionals who are currently jobless, underemployed or mal-employed. These will come in handy, especially if they have proper language and cultural skills, so vital in health communication if results are to trickle down.

In essence, therefore, the issue of language barrier should not be flashed as likely to lead to undesired final results.

One would also expect that the very same Kenyan doctors will cooperate with their Cuban counterparts in communicating and helping deliver quality health services.

BEEF

But the voice from our doctors seems to suggest the beef lies with the prominence accorded the foreign doctors by the government. Which also, in parallel, may be read as a denigration of our own doctors.

Overall, the number of Cuban doctors, compared to that of their Kenyan counterparts remains negligible.

The point of convergence, while still seeking the best working conditions for all our doctors should not lose focus that the primary interest of any health care system, any health care worker is to have a healthy population that is capable of realising her potential due to proper health care. The rest are sideshows that are not beneficial to the ordinary citizen whose sole concern is to get good health care.

Mr Macharia, a Translator, runs Realtime Translators, a Translations and Communications Consultancy.