HEALTH CARE IN NEED OF A `SPEAK-UP' CULTURE
Employees lack protection to discuss racism in system, investigator says
B.C. needs to promote a “speak-up culture” in the health care system to combat racism against Indigenous people, says anti-racism reviewer Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond.
But as a first step the New Democrats need to include protection for health care workers under their vaunted whistleblower legislation.
Turpel-Lafond, the former children's representative, reported Monday on a six-month review that was prompted by what turned out to be unfounded allegations.
She found no evidence to substantiate that staff in emergency rooms were betting on the blood-alcohol level of Indigenous patients in a so-called Price is Right game.
She did find ample evidence of persistent, systemic racism against Indigenous patients and staffers alike, documented in the more than 200 pages of a report titled In Plain Sight and backstopped by two dozen recommendations.
In the course of the investigation, Turpel-Lafond found many health care workers feared speaking publicly about racism in the system.
But their reluctance was not surprising, given what she said about the Public Interest Disclosure Act, which the New Democrats enacted 2½ years ago, touting it as the new standard in whistleblower protection.
And as Turpel-Lafond notes, reporting on issues such as racism and discrimination could be facilitated through the whistleblower legislation — except for one omission. The New Democrats gave whistleblower protection to staff in the Ministry of Health, the Office of the Provincial Health Officer and the Office of the Senior's Advocate.
But, Turpel-Lafond said, “This act does not currently apply to health authority employees.”
And most of the health care workers in B.C. work for the one provincial and five regional health authorities. And it is on health authority front lines — hospitals, emergency rooms and care centres — where most of the face-toface abuses documented in Turpel-Lafond's report are happening. If those frontline workers want to talk — and Turpel-Lafond found many of them did — they do so without whistleblower protection.
Consequently, Turpel-Lafond — who is a lawyer, a former judge, and director of the UBC centre on residential schools — protected them herself with a guarantee of confidentiality.
She did not provide an explanation for the NDP government's delay in extending whistleblower protection to health care workers. But I gather it is the result of foot-dragging by the health authorities.
Even so, the lapse can't be justified, given the roots of B.C.'s Public Interest Disclosure Act.
It was prompted by a review into one of the darkest episodes in the history of the provincial public service — the firing of eight health care staffers and researchers back in 2012.
Among the recommendations of a review of the firings by ombudsman Jay Chalke was a call for whistleblower legislation, which the New Democrats implemented not long after taking office.
“This bill will encourage employees to report serious wrongdoing by protecting them from reprisals associated with such reporting,” said Attorney General David Eby in introducing the legislation.
“Some key aspects of this act include the ability for employees to report wrongdoing, either internally or externally, to the ombudsperson and a positive obligation on government to advise employees of the protections provided under this act and how they can report serious wrongdoing.”
There matters stood when the legislation was adopted with all party support in spring 2018. The first phase of the protections were implemented a year ago, with employees of the health authorities excluded.
Turpel-Lafond cited “employees not being willing to speak up” as one of the top reasons why racism persists in the health care system. She also noted the particular reluctance of Indigenous people who work in the system to report racism.
“Changes are needed in the work environment to address the racism experienced and witnessed by Indigenous health care workers,” she wrote. “This includes improved mechanisms for health care workers to report incidents of racism that occur in the workplace.”
Hence recommendation number 11 in her report: “That the B.C. government continue efforts to strengthen employee `speak-up' culture throughout the entire health care system so employees can identify and disclose information relating to Indigenous-specific racism or any other matter, by applying the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) to employees throughout the health care sector without further delay.”
Turpel-Lafond emphasized the urgency in talking to journalists, saying that the extension of the act to health care workers “can be done quite quickly.”
The action would also serve another of her recommendations, which calls for continued monitoring and reporting on progress to reduce systemic racism.
One of the provisions in the whistleblower legislation obliges “the entities covered by the act to produce annual reports detailing the number of allegations of wrongdoing that were reported and investigated.
“The ombudsperson is also obligated to produce annual reports of disclosures they receive, resulting investigations and whether the recommendations have been implemented.”
If the act were extended to the health authorities, they would be obliged to report on complaints they received from whistleblowers and how those were addressed.
Looking on and listening as Turpel-Lafond laid out her recommendations was Health Minister Adrian Dix.
He thanked her for her report, apologized for the abuses she documented, and promised to set up a task force to address the recommendation.
But he gave no indication that the government will act as “quickly” as she says it could, to extend whistleblower protection to front-line health care workers.
Turpel-Lafond — who is a lawyer, a former judge, and director of the UBC centre on residential schools — protected them herself.