Thousands of Ukrainian doctors have undergone English language training and will be able to treat and communicate with foreign guests during the Euro 2012 football championship next month, a top health official said May 30.
Deputy Health Minister Oleksandr Tolstanov said Ukraine is ready to provide adequate health care to football fans and guests during the June 8-July 1 championship the country co-hosts with neighboring Poland.
"We were worried about a language barrier," Tolstanov told reporters. "We have prepared a great number of medical students and doctors who speak the (English) language and can communicate directly with guests and those who ended up in hospital,"
Andreas Schaer, a government relations official at UEFA, said Ukrainian doctors were highly skilled and would be able to provide the necessary care.
"If you want to take care of your guests, you need to be able to communicate (with) them and then you need to understand their language," Schaer said.
Organizers expect hundreds of thousands of guests and fans during the championship and authorities are scrambling to train doctors, police and other officials to speak English.
The Interior Ministry has also taught some 19,000 police to speak English and has purchased nearly 1,500 electronic voice translators, said ministry spokesman Serhiy Pohotov, the Interfax news agency reported.
