Latest news with #DrMarciaAnderson
CTV News
17-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Black and Indigenous patients waiting longer to be seen in emergency departments: Shared Health
Dr. Marcia Anderson presents a report on systemic racism in the province's health-care system during a news conference at the Manitoba legislature on June 17, 2025. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg) Black patients are waiting longer to be seen in Manitoba's emergency departments and are leaving without being seen by a doctor in higher numbers, according to a new report. The findings come in Shared Health's race, ethnicity and Indigenous identity data report, which examines systemic racism in health care. To compile the report, the team analyzed emergency room data from across Manitoba. 'We know this is not just a problem in emergency departments or in Winnipeg. Systemic racism is a problem across the health-care system provincially and nationally,' Health Sciences Centre chief operating officer Dr. Shawn Young said at a news conference Tuesday at the Manitoba legislature. 'For patients, racism - systemic or otherwise - is a contributing factor in their health outcomes and how long they wait for care,' Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said. 'For staff, racism and discrimination contribute to burnout and staff turnover.' Shared Health's report found Black patients were waiting an average of 3.9 hours to be seen, and Indigenous patients were waiting an average of 3.2 hours. The average wait time in Manitoba is 3.4 hours. It also found that 16.7 per cent of Indigenous patients and 14.7 per cent of Black patients left emergency departments without being seen, above the provincial average of 12 per cent and above the national average of eight per cent. Dr. Marcia Anderson, who headed up the study, notes that while work is being done to address the issue, more is still needed. 'There is a health-care system commitment to disrupting racism in all of its forms,' she said. 'Some health regions already have anti-racism policies in place, and other regions are actively working on them.' Anderson also noted the University of Manitoba's medicine programs have anti-racism components in place to teach students how to avoid racism in health care. The province collects race-based data from patients on a voluntary basis and has been doing so since 2023. 'Data alone, however, will not help fix the system, but we cannot fix what we do not measure,' Asagwara said. The full report can be found online.
CBC
17-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
Indigenous, Black patients wait longer for care in Winnipeg ERs: report
Patients who identify as Indigenous, African or Black are generally spending longer in Winnipeg emergency department waiting rooms than white people, according to a new report examining how different racial groups experience patient care. The data also found Indigenous patients present with similar triage scores as white patients, which counters "the common stereotype of Indigenous people using the emergency departments inappropriately," says the report prepared by Dr. Marcia Anderson, who lead the race, ethnicity and Indigenous identity data project team on behalf of Manitoba Shared Health. It also found patients who are African and/or Black wait the longest to be seen, on average, even though they're most likely to present with a serious medical issue. The report, released Tuesday, recommends all emergency department staff "be prioritized for participation" in Indigenous cultural safety and anti-racism training, along with anti-Black racism. "Emergency departments are very stressful environments to work in, and the health system is facing challenges in many areas," Anderson said in the report. "Unfortunately, in a system under stress, it is often those who are the most marginalized and who have the fewest resources to draw on facing the most severe impacts." In 2023, the province's health-care system began asking patients to self-declare their racial or ethnic background as part of the hospital admission process, making Manitoba the first Canadian jurisdiction to do so. The report also found white people are more likely to be assigned a high acuity score, which may result in those patients being prioritized for care quicker.
