SÊRT - Fatma Sümeli, who went to the hospital in Siirt for hearing problems, was not examined, saying “SRT values could not be measured because the patient does not speak Turkish”.
Fatma Sümeli, who wanted to be treated at Siirt Training and Research Hospital Ear Nose and Throat Polyclinic, was not treated because she does not speak Turkish. Sümeli went to the hospital on September 17 because she had hearing problems. However, the “Speech Reception Threshold (SRT)” test could not be performed because Sümeli did not speak Turkish. The doctor who performed the examination noted on the paperwork prepared for the test, “SRT values could not be measured because the patient does not speak Turkish.” The doctor recommended that Sumeli be taken to a different hospital.
REFERRED TO ANOTHER CITY
Stating that they went to the hospital because of a problem in his mother's ear, Abbas Sümeli said: “We went to the hospital because my mother had no hearing in her ear. When we went to the hospital, we had an ear test. They put her on a device here. Then my mother saw a doctor. They asked us to go to Diyarbakır or Batman. When we looked at the paper they gave us, it said 'SRT values could not be measured because the patient does not speak Turkish'. We could have translated it there, but they did not ask for translation. However, even though there were people who spoke Kurdish, they asked us to take the patient to another hospital.”
DEMAND FOR HEALTH CARE IN MOTHER LANGUAGE
Stating that his mother does not speak Turkish and that she was not treated because she demanded health care in her mother language, “Most of the people of the city are Kurdish, most of the people who come to the hospital do not speak Turkish. This should not be like this. This is what we were saying when we demanded health care in our mother language. We have once again seen how important health care in our mother language is” he said.
Sümeli stated that they have filed a complaint against the doctor to the Ministry of Health and that his right to access treatment has been prevented.
ON SRT TEST
About the SRT test: Six words of 3 syllables are given at 10dB -15dB above the patient's pure tone average (SSO). If the patient repeats them all correctly, the intensity is reduced by 5dB and another list of 3-syllable words is given again. If the patient repeats this correctly, the intensity is decreased by 5dB.