Probe ordered into emergency ward racism
Health minister calls ‘game’ about level of Indigenous intoxication ‘intolerable, unacceptable’
Health Minister Adrian Dix has announced an investigation into “serious” allegations that a number of doctors and nurses in a B.C. emergency department or departments played a “game” to guess the blood-alcohol level of Indigenous patients.
“If true, it is intolerable, unacceptable and racist and its effect on patient care is intolerable, unacceptable and racist,” Dix said Friday.
Dix said Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the former legislative advocate for children’s rights, has been appointed to investigate.
“She will follow the facts wherever they lead and that is my expectation.”
The allegations came on a day when health officials announced seven new COVID-19 cases in B.C., and no new deaths.
Dix said the allegations were brought to his attention Thursday.
The minister’s announcement came as Métis Nation B.C., which represents B.C.’s nearly 90,000 Métis people, was about to release what it called “very disturbing” information on systemic racism in health care.
A news release from the Métis Nation and the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres said that Indigenous patients seeking emergency medical services in B.C. are often assumed to be intoxicated and often denied medical assessment, contributing to unnecessary harm or death.
It said participants in an Indigenous cultural safety training program detailed “thousands” of cases of racism in health care.
It said that one recent training session, a participant described the game played within B.C. hospital emergency rooms, involving doctors, nurses and other staff.
The release alleged what it called a “Price is Right” game, where the winner is whichever staff member has the closest guess to the blood alcohol level without going over.
“There remains a lack of will to address systemic and specific racism toward Métis, First Nation and Inuit people,” said Leslie Varley, executive director of the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres.
“We know that our people avoid hospitals because we are afraid of having a discriminatory encounter. This happens to the point where Indigenous people end up in emergency with extreme diagnosis, like cancer.”
Varley said that the training program where the game was disclosed was designed to train the 100,000 health care workers in B.C. in preventing anti-Indigenous racism, with each participant asked to describe on an online platform a racist encounter they experienced or witnessed.
“There’s been thousands and thousands of people describing horrific encounters,” she said, adding that the alleged game is not one of the more horrific encounters.
A March 2019 report suggests that even if the guessing “game” allegations shocked politicians this week, the government knew or should have known about some of the “horrific encounters” that Varley mentioned.
That report, made public Friday by the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres and Métis Nation British Columbia, came from a March 2019 event convened by the Provincial Health Services Authority to focus on tackling anti-Indigenous racism in the province’s healthcare system.
The report, which does not appear to have been made public until now, outlines several incidents reported in the B.C. health-care system.
It says Indigenous patients avoided treatment because of experiencing racial slurs at hospitals, and “dismissive, incomplete assessments” leading to “severe and sometimes deadly consequences for patients.”
Daniel Fontaine, chief executive officer for Métis Nation B.C., said the “Price is Right” game is “abhorrent and disgusting.”
“Sadly, if you juxtapose it against the report from March 2019, there are many, many accounts of systemic racism that are happening within the health care system,” he continued.
“While we welcome Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s report which could be months, or who knows, a year out, we are very concerned that there still remains every single day Métis people, Indigenous people who are having interactions with health-care officials every day and every week.”
Turpel-Lafond said she got assurances from Dix that she would be able to conduct an “independent, thorough and complete” investigation.