MONTREAL, Canada — Canadian EMS officials are saying that medics should not have to speak English after a couple became upset when a responding EMT only spoke French to them.
The couple had called an ambulance for their daughter who was having a seizure, and although the couple could speak both French and English, they asked the arriving EMT if they could converse in English, which the EMT refused to do.
Officials from Urgences Sante, the ambulance service, said that having the necessary medical skills are top priority, not bilingualism, according to CTV News.
“The criteria is not that you are bilingual,” said David Sasson of Urgences Sante. “We always encourage you are, it’s an asset, but we will not hire you over another if you’re bilingual or not… It will be based on your clinical experience and your medical experience.”
Patient advocates say it is vital that EMS personnel be able to speak a patient’s native tongue.
“How can you be good if you don’t know what your patient is asking you?” patients’ right advocate Paul Brunet told CTV News.