Post by Stellenbosch University

Patients who do not share a language with their healthcare provider face a structural disadvantage that plays out in misdiagnoses, unnecessary tests, and care that falls short of what it should be. This isn't just a global healthcare challenge. It's one experienced in clinics and hospitals across South Africa every day. Prof Leslie Swartz of Stellenbosch University's Department of Psychology is among the international researchers who have spent four years examining this challenge. The outcome of that work is the Hamburg Declaration on Multilingual Healthcare, co-authored by SU researchers alongside partners from Germany, Romania, the Netherlands and China, and launched at the international conference Global Perspectives on Multilingualism in Healthcare in Hamburg on 26 and 27 June 2026. The declaration sets out concrete recommendations for healthcare systems worldwide, including recording patients' language preferences in medical records, prohibiting children from acting as interpreters in healthcare facilities, and ensuring professional interpreters are appropriately trained, supervised and remunerated for their work. As Prof Swartz notes, the relevance to South Africa is direct. isiXhosa speakers in Cape Town and Deaf patients accessing public health facilities frequently encounter a system that cannot accommodate their language. South Africa's Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of language. The declaration offers a practical framework for closing the gap between that commitment and lived experience. The SU team is already translating this global work into local action, engaging with the Western Cape Government's Department of Health and Wellness and collaborating with the Health Communication Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand. Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/e-jyZAMv