英语论文网

Cultural conflict was identified as a problem in secondary care.
‘…we went to see a Chinese lady in hospital because she was feeling lonely, she said
nurses were very indifferent, she was very scared. But I thought the nurses were kind and
friendly. Then I heard the lady say ‘Can I have…’ and ‘I want…’ Nurse immediately frozen
her face, then I explained to the nurse that that’s the Chinese way of saying things, we do
not have ‘please’, ‘may I’ in our language.’
Chinese school, female
Language and health beliefs are major determinants of the way in which Chinese people
seek and use health care. Chinese view health as the ‘absence of illness’ and in this setting,
use of health services is reactive and sought only when needed. With the additional
constraint of language, Chinese people face inequities in access to peripheral and
preventative services.
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Although the Chinese in the sample were able to use services through providing their own
interpreters (friends and family members), this was often regarded as inadequate as they
could not always translate medical terms.
The Interpretation Services provided by Shropshire County PCT and the Borough of Telford
& Wrekin Council need to be more widely publicised, both within the Chinese community and
among service providers. Interpretation must be available in both Cantonese and Mandarin.
Information must be available in both Chinese and English and the Interpretation Services
must be accessible. It is now common practice for healthcare providers to enquire if ethnic
minority patients require an interpreter at the time of booking an appointment.
5.3. GP registration
All except one of the participants were registered with a GP. The participant who was not
registered with a GP was a qualified Chinese medicine practitioner. Despite having been in
the UK for over two years, he had never felt the need to register as he was in good health
and could also treat himself. However, he was also unclear about the need for and benefits
of registering.
Interviewer: Will you register [with a GP]?
Interviewee: I think I will, I am quite healthy you see… should I register?
One participant of the focus group, a student, experienced difficulty registering with a GP.
5.4. Access to information
Participants felt that information about services was lacking and more needed to be done in
this area. The focus group generated several opinions and ideas.
‘Information about services – this is an area where they haven’t done so well – they need to
publicise services more’.
‘There’s a booklet in Japanese, it explains everything you need to know for moving to the UK.
They need to copy this booklet into Chinese’.
‘There needs to be a Chinese person, a multi-lingual worker, working in the NHS – at least a
physician in hospital who can speak Chinese – this is a need and a must as well’.
[Interpreters are available, why don’t you use them?] ‘That’s the problem, we don’t know
what we need to do [to use them]’.
‘Yes, there is a service there but it’s not well known, we need to let people know there is a
service there’ [Facilitator]
‘They should send information directly to Chinese people, work with the Council to find out
where Chinese people live and send them the information they need’.
‘Why are we discussing this? There’s no point – nothing’s going to be done about it. We
want a solution