I visited this hospital yesterday afternoon with a painful foot injury and was appalled by the incompetence and rudeness of the staff. At reception I was told to go down to a small window half way down the hall to receive care. The woman sitting inside did not speak any English (not a crime but, when there are literally thousands of foreign tourists within a mile of this old town emergency room, very surprising). She rudely dismissed me when I couldn't explain that I had an injured foot in Czech and turned her back to me so I would leave. I asked her if there was anyplace else she could recommend for me to get care that spoke English, she ignored me and made clear that she was irritated by my question and the fact that I had not yet left the hospital. I asked to see a doctor and that was a word she understood and she sent a doctor out to the hall to see me. He seemed to know very little English himself but seemed to understand from my communication and demonstration that I had injured my foot and needed to be evaluated. He instructed me to go to the very end of the hall for care. When I reached the end of the hall there were only toilets. A nurse from another area who spoke a bit of English asked me what I needed and I described my injury. She said I needed to go back to the area I had spoken to the rude woman before because it was the correct place. I left the hospital to find care elsewhere as I didn't trust that I would receive appropriate care. I live around Europe most of the year in non English speaking countries and this has been the only place I've had trouble receiving medical care. They should put a system in place for non Czech speaking patients to communicate, even if only by typing their symptoms into a google translate program on their computers. I've worked in hospitals as a patient advocate and in Human Resources. I know that there are ethical as well as legal obligations for providing care to people who walk in your door. The treatment, lack of treatment, I received was completely unacceptable. read more