Some hospitals didn't understand different cultures

I recall an incident one morning I had received a telephone call from one of the hospitals asking for a meeting.

A meeting of senior staff was annoyed. One member said that she failed to understand why a large number of people from an Asian community visited hospital every time someone from their community was admitted to hospital.

I explained to them that it was their custom. It is expected of every member to visit their member in hospital at least once to give moral support to the patient.

They not only visit the patient but keep in touch with the family. When I explained the situation, they were all very pleased and agreed that it was a good tradition.

In order to help members of staff to understand cultural differences, we organized a number of training sessions which were held at a regular interval.

Today there is very good understanding about all the ethnic minority communities and their traditions and values.