The new website taalklachten.be has been launched to record complaints from Dutch speakers unable to access hospital emergency services in Brussels in their own language. It will also coach them should they want to take legal action
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New contact point to handle complaints about lack of Dutch in Brussels hospitals
Lisa Bradshaw
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Dutch speakers who require emergency services in the Brussels Capital-Region must be able to be served in their native language, according to the law . But this is often not the case in hospital emergency departments. The new contact point taalklachten.be, managed by a number of Flemish associations and with the support of the Flemish government, will now log complaints reported by patients.
“It’s a very old problem,” Ben Weyts (N-VA), who represents the Flemish periphery around Brussels, told Radio 1. “Under the law, emergency services in Brussels must be bilingual.” This includes emergency room personnel in hospitals. “It is a human right that in a crisis situation – when you are in need – can express yourself in your own language.”
Traumatic situations
The minister went on to relate the story of an intervention in Roosdaal in the Flemish periphery in 2023. A baby died, with the parents not being able to speak to the first responders – who came from a Brussels hospital – nor to the emergency personnel in the hospital where the baby was taken. No one could speak Dutch sufficiently enough to explain to them why their son had died.
Complaints about any language problems in Belgium’s three language regions are taken by the federal agency VCT-CPCL. But Flanders felt the need to implement its own system specifically for the situation around emergency services.
The organizations behind taalklachten.be – the Flemish People’s Movement (VVB), the Flemish Medical Association (VAV) and the Flemish Committee for Brussels (VKB) – will not only take complaints, they will assist people who want to take legal action against hospitals that violate language legislation.
“We have tried long enough to put this on the political agenda, but it never goes anywhere,” said Weyts. “That is why we are now changing tactics and, if necessary, choosing the legal route,” According to Weyts, the lack of doctors in Brussels in general – not just Dutch-speaking doctors – is not excuse for hospitals not to comply with language legislation. “The hospital in Jette has been successful in finding Dutch-speaking staff for decades. So it is perfectly possible.”
The hospital to which Weyts is referring is UZ Brussels, the university hospital connected with the Flemish university VUB in Brussels. This hospital, as well as the other two university hospitals – Erasmus in Anderlecht and Saint-Luc in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe – can in principle use the language of their choice. But the emergency departments are subject to the administrative language laws of 1966, which states that public services in the capital must be bilingual.