Red Earth band members say racism is prevalent at Nipawin Hospital

“He started questioning why Brianna was coming in to see the doctor almost every month for the same diagnosis. I couldn’t answer him because his tone was pretty rude,” said Bear. “I said, ‘I’m a first time mom, so I just want to bring her in for any little thing, just to be cautious.’

“And then, he kind of started implying that I was neglecting her health.”

Bear said she was speechless.

“I didn’t say anything to him because he was talking down at me, (saying) that he was going to report me to social services…but he didn’t know that I worked with social services at the time,” said Bear.

The doctor prescribed her daughter antibiotics, although he seemed upset.

Bear said the doctor would wait for the baby to quit crying before talking, but she wouldn’t stop.

“She cries a lot when she goes to the hospital, she’s afraid of doctors,” she said. “(The doctor) doesn’t like a crying baby.”

When asked if she thought her race played a role in their treatment, Bear didn’t hesitate.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” she said. “There was another family in there, another mother with her daughter who was the same age, but they were not First Nations, and I could hear them in the next room—the tone was totally different.

“It’s very saddening to see that,” said Bear, struggling with her emotions. “It hurts, you know, if a person you don’t know automatically assumes you’re an unfit mom…”

Bear said the incident isn’t isolated.

“I’ve seen other families who I’ve worked with closely, and they’ve encountered that. I don’t know if it’s the language barrier or just the colour of our skin,” she said.

According to Bear, more must be done to solve the problem.

“I think there should be more First Nations people in the healthcare system. At least have the doctors and nurses be more aware of First Nations culture and issues,” she said.

Because of the situation, Bear said she worries about her daughter in the future.

“I’m scared that she’s going to be afraid to seek our health services when she gets older, when she starts to realize that there is racism, that there is stereotypes out there regarding First Nations people, especially First Nations women,” she said.

Delsey Daniels, mother of three and a member of Red Earth Cree Nation, has had many bad experiences at the Nipawin Hospital.

When Daniels’ seven-year-old daughter was turning two, she was diagnosed with whooping cough.

She was having a hard time breathing, but was discharged from emergency after being prescribed antibiotics.

The family arrived home to the reserve at 10 p.m., after a 45-minute drive from the hospital.

“And then at around midnight she started panicking, the two-year-old—panicking, running around the house. Her lips were turning purple. She couldn’t breathe,” said Daniels. “We were scared to lose her. I called 911.”

“She quit breathing for a while.”

Daniels said she explained the situation to the 911 dispatcher, who asked if anyone there was able to do CPR.

“I said, ‘Yes, my husband,’” said Daniels.

“‘You guys need to calm down and do CPR on her,’ they said.”

“Our baby was on the floor,” she continued. “It took him 15 minutes to revive her.”

Daniels said once their daughter started breathing, they got her up and started driving towards the hospital, meeting the ambulance on the road 20 minutes later.

“I was crying at the hospital, getting mad at that nurse. ‘We almost lost her because you guys wanted to send her home,’” said Daniels. “And she didn’t say anything.”

Overall, Daniels said she isn’t sure if the problems they have faced are due to racism, but she knows it isn’t right.

“I felt neglected,” Daniels said, through tears. “I don’t think they take us very seriously. Like we’re just a bunch of animals to them.”

Now, 24-weeks pregnant, Daniels feels like they’re dismissing all her concerns.

“They say, ‘I don’t feel the contractions.’ It’s always my word against there’s,” she explained.

Last week, she went to visit a family friend, who’s also First Nations, in the Nipawin Hospital.

“My friend there, she told me her mom wasn’t feeling good and having a hard time. ‘They’re still sending her home,’ she said.”

“She passed away the very next day,” continued Daniels, crying. “They didn’t try hard enough.

“I just wish that this hospital could see that we’re human beings too.”

Cyril Head, health director for Red Earth Cree Nation, said they’ve had many complaints about the Nipawin Hospital from band members.

“Patients go in there and they’re getting bypassed,” said Head. “White people go in there and they get seen first, right away.”

Head said they met with the hospital and the Kelsey Trail Health Region last summer, but nothing changed.

“They said they were going to talk with their staff, and try to work together and have regular meetings, but we haven’t had monthly meetings yet,” he said.

According to Head, their main concern is wait times, something that has been a problem for years. Just last week, he said a band member checked in at 8 p.m. and wasn’t seen by a doctor until after 1 a.m.

While wait times are a universal problem across the province, Head thinks there is something more to it.

“The town population is not that big, so there’s something wrong there,” he said.

And it’s not just Red Earth, Head said it’s a problem for members of Cumberland House and Shoal Lake.

He hopes they’ll have discussions with nurses to, “go by numbers instead of the colour of skin.”

Many times, patients are sent to Prince Albert or Saskatoon for a second opinion and diagnosis.

Head describes the situation as, “very serious.”

“The doctors sometimes only give them Tylenol and tell them to go home and get well,” he said. “But Tylenol isn’t going to fix their health.”

Peggy Ratcliffe, a spokesperson for the Kelsey Trail Health Region, said the hospital follows national and provincial processes when it comes to assessing patients.

“That includes our admissions and discharge from hospital, as well as evaluating and prioritizing patients that receive their care in the ER,” said Ratcliffe.

She said, complaints regarding any facility in their health region are taken, “very seriously.”

A quality of care coordinator, who Ratcliffe said receives a variety of complaints on a regular basis, is in charge of investigating each one filed.

She said reporting concerns is encouraged, although they work to minimize them.

“All staff are provided with representative work force and cultural sensitivity training,” said Ratcliffe. “It is an expectation that all of our physicians, and our managers and our staff will treat all patients, clients and residents that walk through our doors, as well as their families, with dignity, respect and provide them with safe, quality and compassionate care.”

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha

by Alex Soloducha

Red Earth band members say racism is prevalent at Nipawin Hospital

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