In the predominantly Kurdish-populated city of Siirt, southeastern Turkey, a language barrier prevented an audiological test from being conducted on a patient at a state hospital, Mezopotamya Agency (MA) reported.
Fatma Sümeli, who only speaks Kurdish, was unable to undergo an SRT (speech reception threshold) test at Siirt Education and Research Hospital because she could not understand Turkish.
The doctor recorded the incident, noting in the medical report, "SRT values could not be measured due to the patient's inability to speak Turkish." They recommended that Sümeli be taken to a hospital in a nearby city such as Diyarbakır or Batman for further testing.
"There were Kurdish-speaking people"
Sümeli’s son, Abbas Sümeli, expressed frustration with the situation, explaining that they could have assisted with translation, but no such request was made by the hospital staff. "There were people who spoke Kurdish, including us, but they insisted on transferring her to another city," he told MA.
Abbas also pointed out that many of Siirt's residents do not speak Turkish fluently. "The majority of the city's population is Kurdish. Most patients here don’t speak Turkish. This situation should not happen. The importance of providing healthcare in our native language has become evident once again," he said.
The family has filed a complaint with the Health Ministry, arguing that Fatma’s right to healthcare was obstructed due to the language barrier. They believe that her access to treatment was denied based on her inability to communicate in Turkish.
The SRT test measures a patient’s ability to understand and repeat familiar words at the lowest volume. While it typically requires a shared language between the clinician and patient, alternatives, such as using a translator or administering tests in the patient’s native language, can ensure accurate results in multilingual settings.
Audiologists in multilingual settings may also employ non-verbal alternatives, such as pure-tone audiometry or other speech discrimination tests, to assess hearing without language barriers. (VK)