Abstract

The language barrier continues to compromise adequate healthcare delivery in multilingual healthcare systems. This makes language an important issue for the policy agenda in such systems. This article highlights the silence of selected South African health policies on managing the language barrier in healthcare. The analysis establishes that the selected policies make limited provisions, if any, on the language barrier and fail to account for how the language barrier should be addressed in the provision of care. This silence derives from the level of attention that the subject receives in public discourses and national policies. It is therefore recommended that policies become explicit on how the language barrier in healthcare delivery should be addressed, and that effective implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation mechanisms be put in place to facilitate equitable access to healthcare services for all.

摘要

语言障碍继续损害多语言医疗保健系统中足够的医疗保健交付。这使得语言成为此类系统中政策议程的重要问题。本文重点介绍了南非选定的健康政策在管理医疗保健中的语言障碍方面的沉默。分析表明，所选政策对语言障碍做出了有限的规定（如果有的话），并且没有考虑到在提供护理方面应如何解决语言障碍。这种沉默源于主题在公共话语和国家政策中受到的关注。因此，建议就应如何解决医疗保健提供中的语言障碍明确政策，