Anti-Indigenous racism in B.C. healthcare compounded by lack of primary care: Turpel-Lafond

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VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) — Anti-Indigenous racism in B.C.’s healthcare system has been linked to a lack of primary care in communities across the province.

Newly-released data shows Indigenous people are 75 per cent more likely than non-Indigenous people to visit an emergency room when they need help.

B.C.’s former child and youth advocate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says pregnant women are especially at risk, and by the time many First Nations people visit a hospital, it’s too late.

“Their needs become more acute because they don’t get primary care and when they go into emergency, it may not be the place to do the referral, to do the communication, to provide the culturally safe care because, at times, emergency departments themselves are in a state of crisis.”

She adds an emergency room is not usually the best place to seek culturally safe care.

“What we’re seeing is that, instead of having routine health care, we don’t have the continuum. We have the emergency department, so First Nations people are going into the ER to get care.”

RELATED: ‘This is a matter of pressing urgency’: Turpel-Lafond begins investigation of racism in B.C. ERs

Turpel-Lafond was hired last summer to investigate reports of anti-Indigenous racism in hospitals and other healthcare settings.

The former judge says people who don’t have a family doctor can’t depend on virtual visits with a physician online.

“It doesn’t have the continuum of care. We need to build out the primary care system and continue that work and I appreciate that’s not going to be built overnight. These types of interactions, where First Nations people are going in crisis and into an emergency room because they haven’t had care is the type of situation that actually compounds the racism and this cycle needs to be broken.”

RELATED: Racism review finds ‘widespread, insidious problem’ in B.C. health care system

In November, Turpel-Lafond delivered a report titled In Plain Sight which contains 24 recommendations.

Health Minister Adrian Dix has promised to implement all of them.

“We’re working together on implementing and expanding primary care networks around the province, but also centres in different parts of the province. Our goal is 20 new centres in order to expand access to primary care… A lot of British Columbians, of course, feel the lack of a family practice doctor or nurse practitioner right now, but when you consider how much higher that lack of access in indigenous communities, you understand the impact that can have on health for everyone. We have to do both.  We have to build out the services on the one hand and aggressively implement the anti-racism policies on the other hand.  It’s not one or the other. It’s both.”

Other recommendations include the creation of an Indigenous health officer and an associate deputy minister of Indigenous health.

Thursday’s update from Turpel-Lafond comes days after a pregnant Indigenous woman was turned away from the hospital in Kitimat and later delivered her stillborn child in Terrace.

Dix says an investigation into that matter continues.

RELATED: Dix says review launched into allegations of racism against pregnant Indigenous woman

Earlier this week, he also apologized after learning some COVID-19 vaccine doses were not administered –as promised– to members of the Nuxalk Nation in Bella Coola.

The CBC was first to report a medical health officer from the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority left the community with an RCMP escort after suggesting the doses were a “gift.”

VCH board chair Dr. Penny Ballem, who’s currently in charge of the province’s vaccine rollout, later issued her own apology in a statement saying she regrets a culturally safe and respectful experience was not provided for members of the Nuxalk Nation.

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