No English in an emergency? Montreal families fed up with language getting in the way of health care

Two people hold hands in a hospital. (RDNE Stock project /pexels.com)

Two Montreal families are speaking out about their frustrating experiences trying to receive health care in English while in the middle of emergency situations.

According to the Quebec government, there are “no restrictions” on the right to receive health services in Quebec for English speakers.

“Every English-speaking person has the right to receive health and social services in English to the extent provided by access programs [available resources],” states a document released last September to clarify Quebec’s new French-language directives for the health care network.

Broken telephone

Shari Bronstein tells CTV News that her 96-year-old father, who has heart issues, and her 92-year-old mother, who lives with Alzheimer’s disease, live at home with a caregiver.

“Both are frail in that they shuffle, shake a little, harder of hearing, less patient,” she said. “They had a spate of falls in the last few years.”

• READ MORE: ‘No restrictions’ for English patients in Quebec health institutions

Bronstein says her father is at risk of brain bleeds due to his medication, and so, every time he has a tumble, her parents' caregiver must call 911.

“Urgences-Santé makes it very complicated and stressful when we are already under stress,” she said. “They come in, start to assess and within minutes start either speaking in French or insisting on my dad and his caregiver speaking French. Neither speaks French.”

Bronstein says because of this, the caregiver will call her to translate.

“It becomes a crazy situation of passing the phone around, first to dad, and I explain to him the assessment, then to the caregiver, so I can explain it to her so she can reassure my dad and make plans, then it goes back to the tech, and it goes round and round and round,” she said.

Bronstein explains that her father has a firm belief against being hospitalized and convincing him that he may have to be transported is a challenge in itself.

Adding a language debate on top of the already precarious situation, she says, creates unnecessary delay.

“Every single time, I get the response that, ‘We are in Quebec, madame,’” she tells CTV News. “I reply, ‘Yes, I have been in Quebec all my life too, and I speak French, but my father and his caregiver and my mother only speak English and, respectfully, they need to clearly understand the situation as they are afraid and in pain.”

• READ MORE: Quebec updates list of ‘designated’ English-speaking, multilingual health centres

Bronstein goes on to say her father gets exasperated by the situation and lashes out in frustration.

“[He] refuses to go to [the] hospital [and] from that moment it just deteriorates completely with [the] Urgences-Santé tech telling me that dad needs to stop yelling, he needs to understand, he needs to be calm and that I need to get him to calm down,” she said.

After a while, Bronstein says the paramedics will tell her they have “other urgent patients” and must go.

“He [her father] signs the papers refusing to go and he stays home, and of course, within a few hours, he’s still unwell, and we take him to hospital without the ambulance,” she said.

Bronstein laments that this is a cycle that has happened multiple times.

Urgences-Santé declined CTV News' request for an interview, saying “our paramedics always do their best to serve patients in their preferred language in any circumstance.”

No English in the ER

Couple Siamak Jahangiripour and Nina Hajghassem tell CTV News they also had a bad experience during a recent visit to the emergency room at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM).

• READ MORE: Young Quebecers care less than older people about being served in English: survey

Hajghassem, who is from the U.K., explains she had a sensitive procedure done at the hospital and was told that in the event of complications, she should head straight to the ER.

“Honestly, my experience from the beginning to the end is that most of the health care workers over there didn’t speak English,” she said. “I speak a bit of French, but if I’m in a situation like a medical crisis, my brain is not going to switch to French.”

On Jan. 25, Hajghassem says she and her husband were sitting in the ER awaiting test results following complications from surgery.

As the hours passed, Jahangiripour, a Montrealer, says he inquired in French to a nurse about the delays.

“She very aggressively said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t deal with your file,’” Hajghassem recalls. “But then she did go back in the back room to check and she came out and she told us, ‘No, you haven’t been called.’”

• READ MORE: Quebec vows to clarify new health-care directive after meeting with anglophone groups

The couple explains that by that point, they had been in and out of the ER for three days and were growing impatient.

“We waited another 45 minutes,” said Hajghassem, who adds she decided to check again with the nurse about her results. “I said, ‘Excuse me, has my name been called?’ [...] She was like, ‘parlez-français [do you speak French]?’ and I was like, ‘No, English,’ and she was like, ‘je ne peux pas vous aider [I can’t help you].’”

The couple says at the end of their visit, they asked the nurse for her full name so they could file an official complaint; she refused.

Later on that day, they say they received a phone call from the hospital with an apology from the nurse.

“I was like, ‘Madame, je comprends [I understand], but I’m more comfortable speaking English. You can go ahead and speak to me in French, but I will respond in English,’” said Hajghassem. “It’s OK if you’re going to respond to me in French, but don’t refuse my service.”

Jahangiripour adds the situation left him fuming and says he gave the nurse a piece of his mind.

“I pretty much told her what she did was unacceptable,” he said. “I understand she probably got spooked, and that’s why she called back to try to apologize, but the damage was already done.”

The couple confirmed they plan to file an official complaint with the hospital about Hajghassem’s treatment.

• READ MORE: Montrealer says paramedic made language comment while helping elderly mother

For its part, the CHUM said it was looking into the incident.

“Providing safe and high-quality care to all patients is a priority at CHUM, but out of respect for confidentiality, we do not comment on specific cases,” said Rébecca Guénard-Chouinard, a media relations officer with the hospital. “Every day, staff, health care workers and doctors strive to accommodate patients whose first language is not French to the best of their abilities. An interpreter service is available if needed.”

CTV News contacted Quebec’s health ministry for comment but was referred instead to the CHUM and the 911 services involved in the individual situations.

Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé‘s press attaché declined to answer when pressed about whether the ministry was concerned about the multiple complaints, including a previous CTV News story about a paramedic who allegedly made language comments while helping an elderly woman.