Experiences of trauma health care professionals when providing healthcare to immigrants in Durban public hospitals, South Africa

Abstract

Existing research on access to health care for immigrants in South Africa has focused on access and use of services by immigrants. Focus has been on immigrants concerns around issues of citizenship acquisition and the burdening of the country's resource-constrained healthcare system. Limited empirical research has been conducted to explore health care professionals’ views, daily experiences and challenges when attending to immigrant patients in South African public hospitals. This study purports to fill in this knowledge gap by capturing experiences and challenges of trauma health care professionals when providing healthcare to immigrants in Durban public hospitals, KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa. Data were collected based on a multicase qualitative study design through face-to-face in-depth structured interviews with twentytrauma health care professionals from four trauma centers in Durban public hospitals. Criterion based expert purposive sampling was used to recruit participants for the study. Data collected were analysed using thematic analysis. Inability of immigrant patient to converse in English or any other local language posed a major constraint for trauma health care professionals when attending to migrant patients. Poor communication and culturally based differences in interpretations of sickness causality as well as desired treatment were also reported as challenges health professionals face when attending to immigrant patients. Doctors were concerned about how these barriers presented risks of prescribing wrong treatment and the possibility of patient's non-compliance especially those who cannot speak English or any local language. To health professionals’ language and communication barrier, different cultural interpretation of sickness and cause of sickness is a challenge health professionals are facing when attending to immigrant patients. There is need for interpreters at hospitals or for hospitals to make it compulsory for patients who do not speak any of the native languages or English to always be accompanied by an interpreter.