'It would be nice if they could give us more language' - Serving South Africa's multilingual patient base

This paper considers the role of multilingualism in health care by drawing on the results of an empirical study conducted in three public hospitals in the Western Cape, South Africa. Data were collected through questionnaires, staff and patient interviews as well as ethnographic observation. The focus is on the large number of isiXhosa-speaking patients who have entered the provincial system since the early 1990s. The analysis shows that linguistic barriers between English/Afrikaans-speaking providers and isiXhosa-speaking patients are a deeply entrenched structural feature of the public health system, and significantly impede the provision of equitable and effective health care fifteen years after the end of apartheid.