Make equality of care part of health care

Winnipeg Free Press

5 days ago

Opinion
A new report confirms something that Indigenous and African/Black patients have known for generations — racism is present in Manitoba's health-care system and it's harming people.
According to the report, released last week, Indigenous and African/Black patients in Manitoba face longer wait times in emergency rooms compared to white patients. Indigenous people are also more likely to leave hospital emergency departments without being seen — often after hours of waiting, pain untreated, anxiety unresolved, dignity unacknowledged.
The data and the report's conclusions — compiled by Shared Health, along with the U of M's Ongomiizwin Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing, and the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation — are not just vague suggestion of racism. This is not abstract theory. It is measurable, verifiable inequality. And it is unacceptable.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
The emergency department at the Health Sciences Centre.
It is worth pausing to reflect on what this report tells us, and why it matters so deeply.
For decades, Indigenous people have been telling stories of being ignored, dismissed, or mistreated in hospitals and clinics across the province. Many have shared painful accounts of being assumed to be intoxicated rather than in need of care, or treated with condescension rather than compassion.
Families have lost loved ones, only to later learn — or suspect — that their medical concerns had not been taken seriously because of the colour of their skin or the community they come from.
The report analyzed the health system's own data and showed that racism is embedded in the way care is delivered. It reveals structural biases that result in unequal outcomes. And while it confirms what many have known, it removes the last excuse for inaction: denial.
To its credit, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba is not turning a blind eye. In response to the findings, the college has committed to tangible steps, including mandatory training on anti-racism and cultural safety for all licensed physicians, new accountability frameworks, and systemic changes in how complaints of racism are reviewed and addressed.
These are positive and necessary steps. But they are just that — steps. The full journey ahead will require far more from health-care leaders, provincial policymakers, front-line workers, and the public at large.
No one can claim ignorance anymore. The numbers are in. The disparities are real. Now it's time to act.
That means government — specifically Manitoba Health — must be more than a passive observer. It must build on the college's initiatives with provincewide anti-racism strategies that address hiring, training, retention, and accountability across the entire health system.
This includes ensuring emergency departments are better staffed, culturally competent and equipped to deliver equitable care.
It also means Indigenous and African/Black health professionals need to be part of the solution — not just as employees within the system but as leaders, policy-makers, and decision-makers. Their voices and lived experience must help shape what reform looks like.
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Public health data must also be disaggregated by race and ethnicity on a regular basis and shared transparently. Only by measuring outcomes can we understand if equity is being achieved.
But perhaps most importantly, we must listen to patients — really listen. The voices of those harmed by systemic racism must guide this reform, not be sidelined by it.
Indigenous patients who walked out of hospitals without care weren't statistics when they left — they were people in pain who had already lost faith in a system that was supposed to help them.
Addressing racism in health care is not a matter of political correctness, it is a matter of human dignity, respect and ultimately life and death.
The diagnosis is clear. The harm is evident. Now the healing must begin.