Introduction:
Communication with a patient is of fundamental importance for the medical professional. The quality of communication to a great extent depends on an adequate diagnosis and implementation of an eff ective treatment. Adequate communication of medical staff with patients is an important element of medical practice. Skillful and efficient communication between a medical professional and a deaf/ deaf-mute patient constitutes the foundation of mutual relations between them; therefore, it is extremely important to pay attention to the need for educating medical staff in an effi cient use of sign language. In many countries worldwide, the problem of communication between a medical professional and a deaf patient is still present and requires the undertaking of concrete organizational actions in order to provide the deaf the possibilities of fully-fl edged use of medical care. One of the forms of counteracting the communication barriers present at each stage of providing medical care, especially in urgent situations, is the education of medical services in the essentials of sign language. The main incentive for undertaking considerations concerning the problems of medical professional-deaf patient communication is paying attention to multi-aspect problems experienced by the deaf in association with everyday functioning in the environment of those hearing, and proposals of specific legislative changes aimed at the provision of deaf/deaf-mute/ deaf-blind patients with the sense of safety and possibilities of fully-fl edged use of public health care institutions