AUG 20 — The recent expose about medical colleagues conversing in languages other than Malay and English during formal ward rounds or in workplace had really caught my attention.

When I was a houseman, the demographics of patients which I served basically consist of one third of each major races of Malaysia – Malay, Chinese and Indians. And almost all of the elderly Indian patients that I had seen only can speak Tamil. Hence, when I was all alone on call, I could not rely fully on the availability of translator at all times and I picked up some medical terms in Tamil with the help of my dedicated ward nurses. The Tamil language that I picked up had proven to be useful when I breeze through my short case exam in my final year exam in Master when I need to communicate with an Indian patient who can only speak Tamil. In this first hospital that I am working in, all ward rounds and formal interactions are in English only.

Due to my postgraduate training and gazettement plus specialist training, I had served in 4 different hospitals before I joined the private sector.

There were sporadic instances of conversation in Chinese during ward rounds by individual specialists but contents of our discussion were neither work-related nor targetted to any individuals of different races or religion. Almost all morning passovers, ward rounds or formal interactions are in English only with occasional Malay words usage for certain unique terminology which is absent in English language.

The next hospital that I worked in have full formal interactions only in English, unless to quote patients’ own words. Those are interesting dialogues of lingual and cultural exchange where words in other languages were being introduced and honestly, everyone enjoy learning new words of different languages. While some doctors enjoy differentiating Cantonese and Hokkien from Mandarin with another group of doctors immerse themselves in distinguishing subtle differences in Malay languages of different region of Malaysia - Bahasa Utagha (Utara), Bahasa Johor or Bahasa Kelateh (Kelantan)

The last public hospital that I served in conducted morning passovers in mostly Malay language which made me repeatedly trying my best to change it to English language for the benefits of junior doctors under training and in practice.

It is my primary belief that English is the prime lingua franca of medicine, mainly because all our professional examinations, from undergraduate examination to local Master and parallel postgraduate examinations are in English. Local and international medical conferences and journals are mostly in English, including our local Medical Journal of Malaysia (http://www.e-mjm.org/).

Hence, the primary path for doctors to enrich their professional knowledge and updates for their practice is through the English language while other languages are extremely useful to convey messages to the patients who speak different primary languages.

Nevertheless, over the years, I had heard about uncommon incidences of hospitals’ ward rounds among doctors being spoken in Mandarin, Tamil, Sabahan language or Bahasa Kelantan.

Jokingly, out of sheer boredom, I did refer my anaesthetic colleague once for emergency C-Section in Mandarin and I found it to be so uncomfortable and difficult that I changed it back to English half-way through.

In the same vein, I find "Dr. Johan”’s allegation on the insistence of orthopaedic medical officer of Penang General Hospital to teach central venous lines in Mandarin either rather extraordinary or perplexing. Not to mentioned, my anaesthetic colleagues who are well-versed in Mandarin and experts in central venous lines insertion found it difficult or close to impossible to teach in Mandarin and quoted even in Hong Kong, the lesson was taught in English.

Usage of language in medicine is not a political issue but often being politicized to segregate and disunite the people of Malaysia by creating suspicion, coercion or racial tension.

But for sure, there is a certain degree of discomfort and disrespect, when one speak in a crowd in a language exclusive only to few people of the crowd. And it is definitely unprofessional if it is in a medical setting.

As I had said before, English is the primary professional language in medicine while other languages are extremely useful to enhance patient-doctor relationship. Even our current Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir did stressed that he learnt up some Mandarin and Hokkien in his early years as a doctor to communicate better with his patients.

Our nation is a fertile land to pick up languages as we have colleagues and friends to help out in learning other languages such as Mandarin and Tamil besides our national language.

Instead of looking at it as a stumbling block, why don’t young doctors or medical personnels take it as a stepping stone to better enrich ourselves to be a better clinician to our patients?

Clarify and remind your colleagues if you do not understand the spoken languages be it - Mandarin or Bahasa Kelantan. Report your unrepetent colleagues to the Head of Department or Director of Hospital if such doctors purposely and continuously commit such offense or the improper communication had resulted in medical negligence or near misses.

Doctors can be disunited by the primary languages that we speak or insist in speaking, but we must all be united in the language of love, respect and peace.

Choose our language wisely but our manners should always supersede our choice of language. Raise our words, not our voice. It is the rain that grows flowers, not the thunder.

Following the "resam padi”, be humble enough to accept our differences yet be courteous enough to right the wrong.

Use a common language in professional formal conduct but do not close our mind to other languages in this world.

*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.