Two University of Calgary researchers weren’t surprised when their survey of Alberta doctors showed biases against Indigenous patients, but they were shocked by some of the comments.
Pamela Roach and Shannon Ruzycki sent a survey in September 2020 to every licensed doctor in the province to determine their biases following high-profile deaths of Indigenous patients in Canada’s health-care system.
One of the survey respondents — a white doctor — said he felt racism from Indigenous people, not the other way around. There is already a power imbalance in the doctor-patient relationship, the researchers said, and that can pose a dangerous environment for Indigenous patients seeking medical help. In the question that asked doctors if they preferred white or Indigenous people, 25 per cent said they preferred white people and more than eight per cent said that they felt unfavourably towards Indigenous people.Roach, who is a member of the Metis Nation of Alberta, said that the low survey response was likely due to the timing of when it was sent out, during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, when hospitals were over burdened and many health-care workers were feeling burnt out.
“We cannot continue to make excuses that our system is so overrun that we can’t afford to lose a physician or a nurse who’s racist. That’s not acceptable.”
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