BR Mba Indigenous Health – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Aug 21, 2018 

WINNIPEG – First Nations doctors have shared personal stories at a national a health summit to demonstrate how Indigenous patients still face racism and unequal access to treatment.

Alika Lafontaine told the Canadian Medical Association inaugural Health Summit in Winnipeg yesterday that doctors need to recognize how inherent biases can still affect how a patient is treated.

Lafontaine explained how a family member called him for medical advice complaining of a very specific pain and the doctor knew immediately that it was appendicitis.

He sent the relative to the hospital where he was told it was probably just kidney stones.

Lafontaine said he knew the diagnosis was wrong and was able to advocate for his relative, who ended up getting emergency surgery.

The summit was held not far from the Winnipeg hospital where an Indigenous man, Brian Sinclair, died in 2008 when he was left alone and uncared for in an emergency department for around 36 hours.

Lafontaine says doctors now recognize that many Indigenous patients have previous trauma that shouldn’t be dismissed.

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(The Canadian Press)

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