Improving communication skills:

Tamil language training for new doctors

by Carol Aloysius

A thousand newly passed out Medical Officers from all State universities islandwide will be able to converse in Tamil with their patients by December end.

"The first group of doctors has already undergone training at a 10-day residential program held last week at Agalawatte. Another will be held on Thursday with 65 new doctors attending it. Our goal is to train over a thousand so that doctors in MOH offices islandwide would communicate with their patients in Tamil", Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) President Dr A. Padeniya told the Sunday Observer.

"The present inability by the majority of doctors in the country to speak Tamil with patients who converse only in Tamil is a serious gap in communication. A medical practitioner at an MOH clinic is the first point of contact for a patient with medical problems. If he/she can't understand the patient's problems, it can compromise the patient's health. Hence the GMOA, with the support of the Health Ministry, the Official Languages Department and the World Health Organization has launched a training program in Tamil for all newly qualified doctors in the island", he said.

"The ongoing residential training program will continue till end of December. The first program was a great success, so we are hopeful that by December, all these doctors will be fluent in the country's second official language", he said.

Coinciding with Tamil language training, the GMOA is also conducting a program to improve doctors' skills in listening, building confidence in patients and negotiation skills, giving patients different options for treatment.

"This training is for a selected number of doctors. They, in turn, will train new medical officers. In a few weeks, every province will have a master trainer who will train the newly passed out medical officers in such skills to give patients better quality care and establish a better doctor-patient relationship", Dr Padeniya said.