Help us improve: Choose your language! Osakidetza and the Department of Health of the Basque Government presented the campaign for citizens to choose the language they want to use in health care. The objective of the project, presented in February 2017, was to indicate the language that citizens prefer when relating to public health in the CAPV. The health service warned at the beginning of the campaign that respect for this possibility will be conditioned “by the sociolinguistic reality and by the available services and resources”. Initiative II for the Standardization of the Use of the Basque Country in Osakidetza between 2013 and 2019. It is part of the Plan.

Currently, there are three ways to select the preferred language both when it comes to receiving care and when communicating with Osakidetza: approaching the health center, indicating the doctor or nurse in the consultation and accessing the health folder that can be accessed through the internet. At the moment, 40% of the potential recipients of the Osakidetza service have opted for Euskera as the preferred language and a total of 215,000 people have opted for Euskera; from this figure it can be deduced that 24% of the total considered Euskaldun in the CAV has opted for Euskera to communicate with Osakidetza.

Even when primary care in health centers is possible in Euskera, it is usually not proactively offered, according to the evaluation report of the linguistic normalization plan. It indicates that the patient is usually expected to speak in Euskera, and if this is not the case, it is necessary that another Basque health worker does not have the full patient pool to be able to transfer him/her to the Basque speaking professional. An example of this is that only 13% of those who have prioritized Euskera have been offered a Basque doctor, nurse or midwife instead of a Castilian speaking. According to the survey conducted by Osakidetza, 55% of the patients who have opted for Euskera have been able to perform oral communication in Euskera with their doctor or nurse. According to the language chosen, 21% of the respondents had the opportunity to transfer the doctor or pediatrician to the Basque language, a figure that in the case of specialist doctors is reduced to 12.7%.

In addition to the above-mentioned campaign, health workers have been given the possibility to identify with the symbol bearing the letter ‘e’ and a “very positive response” has been given to users and professionals in the mid-term evaluation report of the Euskera Plan. The report reveals, however, that a large number of professionals have refused to label ‘e’ for fear, lack of naturalness or lack of ability to speak correctly. In addition, there are professionals who do not want to speak in Basque at the first farewell and, therefore, as the Plan de Euskera de Osakidetza says, do not want to continue speaking in the same language if the answer is received in Basque.

Request it, but do you receive it?

Osakidetza was created in 1984, two years after the approval of the basic law of normalization of the use of Euskera in the CAV. This law recognizes the rights of citizens – including health care in Basque – and requires obligations on institutions. In this regard, Arantza Aranburu, of the Observatory on Linguistic Rights, considers that Osakidetza has so far been a “black spot” in terms of citizenship rights: “This campaign is late. If, by creating the structure, the Basque language and language rights had been put at the centre, today we would be in a different situation. But the system was launched in Spanish and this has caused more difficulties.”

The Centre also envisages the campaign for the selection of the preferential language and the possibility of providing the service in Basque: “It makes no sense to ask users in what language they want health care if the organization is not prepared to provide the service in Basque.” At present, one in three workers in Osakidetza has a proven language profile for their job. Children under the age of 45 are mainly those who Euskaldunizan Osakidetza: 77% of children under 45 years of age have an Euskera profile and 29% of those over 45 years of age.

Complaints from the citizens who receive the Centre are a reflection of the lack of vasco-speaking professionals that are needed. This situation is further exacerbated by replacements or holiday periods. Arantza Aranburu has doubts about the consistency of several Osakidetza conducts: “When they do not place vasco-speaking professionals for substitutions, they argue that they have difficulties in achieving them. On the other hand, we receive complaints about the impossibility that students who study in Euskera can attend certain subjects in Euskera or because 90% of the practices are carried out in Spanish”. With deficiencies in the number of professionals in Euskera, Aranburu believes that the organization should be responsible and ensure the training of future professionals.

The Centre for Linguistic Rights has also received complaints about the campaign for the selection of the preferential language. Aranburu recalls two complaints received from Bizkaia, both for having the campaign poster in Spanish only. The member of the Observatory questions the meaning of the Spanish-language poster: “Choose your language on the poster I placed. It should be taken into account that the identified citizenship is Euskaldun, as the Castilian speaking people have their linguistic rights guaranteed. The campaign was bewildered.”

Complaints regarding the campaign were not answered by the Centre. In addition, it should be noted that in 2016 Osakidetza received 245 complaints related to the Basque Country, many of them in the specialized area. Citizens can say that they want to receive the service in Basque. Osakidetza now has work to guarantee the rights of citizens.