Special considerations involved in treating foreign patients in gynecology

In 2002 about 3.2 million female immigrants lived in Germany. The predominant part of these women came from Turkey, followed by women from ex-Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece, and Poland. Despite the high number of immigrants in hospitals and outpatient clinics and despite their long-term residence in Germany, doctors and other medical staff are still not familiar with this group of patients. Factors such as poor German language ability, little knowledge about health problems, low income, poor education, but most of all differences of the social and cultural background influence the patient-doctor relationship. Often, the consequence of these cultural and language barriers is an increased application of technique-based examinations or more invasive surgical procedures. In our opinion, a substantial part of the work with foreign patients should be an optimal translation of their mother language and the knowledge about their cultural background. These issues could not only help to reduce the costs by avoiding unnecessary technical procedures but also improve the quality of medical care for foreign patients.