GENEVA

Minority groups in Finland sometimes face "racist and discriminatory attitudes" while receiving health care in the country, according to a study published on Monday.

All respondents in the study, conducted by public broadcaster YLE, "reported witnessing the use of racist and discriminatory language by their colleagues in the workplace as well as within closed Facebook groups," said the channel, adding that it had interviewed a total of 15 doctors and a nurse.

According to the broadcaster, the prevalence of racist and discriminatory attitudes in the Finnish healthcare system could "even affect the level of care a patient receives."

Anni Saukkola, one of the doctors interviewed by YLE, said in the report that certain doctors in the group were more concerned about racist posts being becoming known than about the content of the posts themselves.

"The racist writings on social media is just the tip of the iceberg of what is experienced on a daily basis in hospitals, health centers and operating theatres," Saukkola told YLE.

The report revealed that the posts and comments contained racist or derogatory language, frequently against Muslims or individuals of foreign descent.

Patients with a foreign background tended to have their pain or injury minimized by medical staff and were believed to "over-dramatize or exaggerate" their condition, according to almost all doctors interviewed by the broadcaster.