Translating Medical Documents to Protect Ukrainian Patients’ Right to Language Access
by Khrystyna Demchenko,
Translator, interpreter and PM of the Ukrainian Team at Respond Crisis Translation
Over the past year, the Ukrainian team has translated medical documents for over fifty Ukrainian refugees with a wide range of conditions. These refugees all fled Ukraine to different countries, including England, Scotland, Poland, Czechia, Germany, Sweden, and France, due to the full-scale invasion (war) in February 2022.
One case that especially united our team was that of a Ukrainian refugee with cancer in the emergency room in the United Kingdom. Our fantastic team of translators, proofreaders and project managers translated more than 20 pages from Ukrainian and Russian into English in just two days. Thanks to the prompt and error-free translation, she was able to receive much-needed medical help.
On another occasion, we supported a Ukrainian refugee who had cancer by translating all of her medical documents from Ukrainian into German (again, more than 20 pages) so that she could have had an appointment with her oncologist in Germany.
These cases show how, without the kind of language access Respond Crisis Translation provides, macro political circumstances like war and invasion can have adverse effects on individual health outcomes. Our team protects refugees’ and asylum seekers’ rights as patients by ensuring language accessibility across medical and psychological contexts.
For instance, the European Charter of Patients' Rights, one of the main legal documents for patients in Europe, sets out fourteen rights. While the second article, the Right to Access, speaks of equal access only in terms of financial resources, place of residence, and type of illness, the third article, the Right to Information, specifies another type of access: access to all kinds of information. This includes:
The right for patients to know about their health conditions;
The right to know about the health services provided; and
The right to know about scientific research and technological innovation.
The Right to Information dovetails, both directly or indirectly, with other rights in the Charter, such as:
The Right to Preventive Measures (patients need information to make informed decisions and understand medical progress and innovation);
The Right to Consent (patients need information to make informed decisions regarding their health, including treatment, medical interventions, and participation in scientific research);
The Right to Free Choice (patients need information to make informed decisions regarding their treatment procedures, their benefits and risks, healthcare providers and settings);
The Right to Innovation (patients need information to make informed decisions about participation in scientific research);
The Right to Personalized Treatment (patients need information to have therapy tailored to their individual needs);
The Right to Complain (patients need information to know and understand their rights and make complaints).
In other words, when patients don't have information, they are unable to enjoy any of these other rights, including preventive measures and medical care and services, as well as the right to free choice and to consent.
At the same time, all this information – including informational leaflets (for the choice of healthcare professionals, scientific research, and technological innovations, or to improve health literacy), websites (for selecting healthcare services, providers and settings), medical files and records, as well as oral translation in healthcare settings – should be provided in the most accessible form possible, in the language the patient speaks. This is crucial for promoting language justice. Accurate and timely translation should be at the core of the patient’s rights of refugees and asylum seekers; it is often the only way for them to access information.
We at Respond try to create a place where language has no borders and presents no obstacle to accessing medical services in different settings, which not only gives people the possibility of feeling welcome in a new country, but can even save someone’s life.
Press inquiries: media@respondcrisistranslation.org
