Language row at ‘Dobrobut’: child denied admission because of Ukrainian
Andriy Pavlenko reported this on social media.
A language dispute arose during a paediatrician’s appointment at a private clinic belonging to the ‘Dobrobut’ network in Kyiv.
Blogger Andriy Pavlenko, who had come for the appointment with his young son, stated that the doctor refused to provide the service after he asked her to switch to Ukrainian.
According to Pavlenko, he asked the doctor to speak Ukrainian because his child does not understand Russian.
After this, the blogger claims, the paediatrician replied: “Then I won’t be able to provide you with the service.”
Following this exchange, the father took his son and left the surgery. According to Pavlenko, as they were leaving, the doctor said: “Have a nice day!”.
“Not a single word of Ukrainian. Pure Russian,” Andriy Pavlenko said indignantly.
Following the incident, he said, he approached the clinic’s reception. There, they listened to his complaint and offered him an appointment with another paediatrician.
At the same time, after the appointment had finished, the reception staff, according to Pavlenko, asked: “You don’t need us to get in touch with you now, do you?”.
“Why did they ask that? Because surely everyone knows about the situation and the management isn’t going to change anything,” the blogger suggested.
Meanwhile, in the comments on his post, the Dobrobut clinic apologised to Andriy Pavlenko for the situation and asked him to send the details of the visit and the doctor’s surname in a private message.
The clinic stated that they themselves found the situation regrettable and unpleasant. They also emphasised that the working language of the network is the official language.
“Thank you for bringing this unacceptable incident to our attention. Once again, we sincerely apologise on behalf of our employee – we will certainly take steps to ensure that none of our clients ever face such treatment again,” Dobrobut assured.
