One of the activities of the Huis van het Nederlands (House of Dutch) is to promote the Dutch language in areas where Dutch-speakers have to be able to speak their own language. The Brussels' health sector is one of those areas: after all, a patient who is picked up by the Medical Urgency Group (MUG) is not able to choose which hospital he or she will be brought to. Brussels hospitals with a Medical Urgency Group that want to improve their services in the Dutch language form a priority target group for the provision of bilingual emergency services.
It is not just the hospitals and the House of Dutch themselves that are keen to do so, Belgian politicians are interested too.

1. History: First phase of the project: March 2005 - September 2006

In the spring of 2005, the House of Dutch launched the project SPOEDcursus Nederlands/Dutch EMERGENCY course/Au seCOURS du néerlandais which targets the emergency services in 5 Brussels hospitals. With this initiative, the House wanted to help them develop better bilingual services for patients who end up in casualty and for people who are treated or picked up by an ambulance or the Medical Urgency Group. In addition to organizing Dutch courses tailored to the casualty context, language-stimulating fringe activities were provided in the hospital to practice what had been learnt. Step-by-step, a start was made on drafting a language policy plan suited to the reality of each hospital.

The House of Dutch worked on this project with five Brussels hospitals which have a Medical Urgency Group:

• Saint-Peter University Medical Centre
• Brugmann University Hospital (Horta & Brien sites)
• Europa Hospitals (St.-Michiel & St.-Elisabeth sites)
• Erasmus Hospital
• Saint-Luc University Hospital

2. Expansion: Second phase of the project: September 2006 until June 2007

As of September 2006, the project will be expanded in various areas:

EMERGENCY project

In the autumn of 2006, the courses for the emergency services in all the hospitals involved will continue, both in the public sector and private hospitals. In the Europa Hospitals, the Erasmus Hospital and the Saint-Luc University Hospital, language coaching on the work floor will be started up as well before and after the courses. The coaching entails that staff will be given individual supervision in Dutch during work in the emergency ward. This way any language problems can immediately be resolved on the spot. And valuable working hours are not lost in learning Dutch in the classroom.

Dutch Lessons in other departments

As of September, Dutch-language courses will be provided at the Europa Hospital and at Saint-Luc in cooperation with the House of Dutch. The courses in other departments of the hospitals have been given for some years now at the initiative of the CBI (Coordination of Brussels Health and Welfare Organisations), an employers´ federation of Christian private health clinics in the Brussels Capital Region.
As of this school year, the CBI will take the House of Dutch under its wing to guarantee high-quality courses tailored to the needs of those following them. Lérian/Nti is the language school in charge of these courses.

Next to the classes at Saint-Luc and the Europa Hospital, the CBI also organises specific courses in other CBI hospitals that are not participating in the EMERGENCY project.

3. 'Dutch tailored to the emergency services of the IRIS-hospitals' Project

While the Dutch EMERGENCY project lessons continued in Saint-Peter University Medical Centre and Brugmann University Hospital during the autumn of 2006, the project 'Dutch tailored to the emergency services of the IRIS-hospitals' was also started up. As of January 2007, the EMERGENCY project will be integrated in this larger project which aims to reach all 10 emergency services within the IRIS umbrella organisation: Brugmann (Brien and Horta sites) and Huderf, the Saint-Pierre Hospital, César de Paepe, Bordet and the Iris-Zuid hospitals (Etterbeek-Elsene, Baron Lambert, Bracops and Molière).
The project is part of the language policy plan of the IRIS-umbrella organisation.

In the summer of 2006, the recruitment of internal IRIS Dutch teachers, each of whom is in charge of a number of sites, was started. The actual content of the project per emergency service will be laid down in the summer and autumn of 2006. In addition to the language courses, there are various other possibilities such as language coaching on the work floor, conversation tables, language-stimulating activities, etc. These activities will start in January 2007.

4. Queries from other Brussels hospitals

In addition to the hospitals which we are currently working with intensively, the House of Dutch is also advising other Brussels hospitals on the organisation of classes, the setting up of a language policy plan, etc.

For more information on our projects in hospitals in Brussels, please contact our project staff: