MONTREAL - A Quebec coroner entered the controversial debate on reasonable accommodation today by suggesting caregivers in the province should show more openness to the needs of foreign-born patients.
Dr. Jacques Ramsay is presenting his reports on the recent deaths of four newcomers to Quebec to a government commission on the accommodation of minorities.
He told a news conference today in Montreal that the deaths could have been avoided, claiming linguistic and cultural barriers often prevent patients from getting the care they need.
Ramsay cited the example of one man who entered a psychotic state and later killed himself thinking his wife had been diagnosed as HIV positive.
In fact, the man -- an Albanian immigrant -- had misunderstood when hospital staff informed him his wife's blood type was A positive.
Ramsay says that health-care workers should work from the assumption that no accommodation is unreasonable when it comes to somebody's health.
