The city of Thompson is 65 per cent First Nations and the Burntwood Region is around 75 per cent First Nation. Thompson General Hospital, with nearly 75 to 80 per cent of its patients aboriginal, can be considered the only real First Nations hospital in Manitoba.
A recent ad posted by the Burntwood Regional Health Authority, responsible for the hospital, seeking receptionists and aides, gave no preference to First Nations applicants.
With nearly 800 employees, the health authority is the largest public employer north of Winnipeg.
How well are First Nations represented within the BRHA?
Within the senior management team, only one person is First Nations and he is the vice-president of aboriginal affairs. That position was vacant for more than 17 months and was only filled last January. The BRHA claims that it took that long -- 500 days -- to re-vamp and find a suitable candidate. For 500 whole days, there wasn't a single native person in senior management meetings of a public institution that manages what can be considered Manitoba's only First Nations hospital. Even the Aboriginal Affairs division was managed by a white person.
However, it is not only in management where there is an issue with First Nations representation, but all segments of the hospital, beyond the menial, low-paying jobs. Of the First Nations staff hired during the tenure of Marie O'Neil, the last CEO, one was hired in management, one professional, no doctors and only five First Nations nurses. The rest were hired in support positions, like aides and custodial. Research has shown that patients are more at ease, and more trusting of health-care providers who are from the same community and ethnic background. If that is the case then aboriginal patients are out of luck, because it is not only doctors and nurses who are not First Nations but receptionists and telephone operators, too.
The health authority claims that it has no statistics on the number of First Nations receptionists and telephone operators on its payroll. That is really sad considering the fact that many of the First Nations elderly lived through times of racism and turbulence and do not trust the white community. Native receptionists and telephone operators, especially those bilingual in Cree, should be the minimum requirement that the BRHA meets to accommodate and respect the First Nation community.
The BRHA has had an Aboriginal Representative Workforce Strategy since 2002. The strategy's objectives include recruitment and retention of First Nations employees as it "is reflective of the aboriginal population in the Burntwood Region". When I enquired how many people has it employed since inception the BRHA claims the "records do not exist or cannot be found." How can the strategy's effectiveness be measured without such data?
New doctors or specialists are not given an orientation program on First Nations people, culture and health. All doctors hired during the past few years have been foreign medical graduates, some coming directly from overseas. According to one doctor I spoke to, most were in complete shock when they arrived in Thompson. Some have never even heard of First Nations and others, who knew little, did not know that the majority of their patients would be aboriginal. Names like God's River, Thicket Portage or Shamattawa are alien to them.
To date, the health authority has not given its specialists tours of surrounding First Nations reserves and communities. One specialist has been in the hospital for more than five years and he has never officially visited a surrounding reserve and met the chiefs and people. Specialists usually have an administrative day off (usually Friday) and if a real interest was there, tours and orientation programs of the reserves could be held three to four times a year.
Many elders in the region do not speak English. But doctors are not give even a basic introduction to Cree language so that they might offer a "hello", "how are you", "thank you" in the native language.
An organization's website represents its face to the world. Upon opening the BRHA's website one sees multiculturalism: East Indian, black and white -- not First Nations.
What is behind all this? Could it be disregard, negligence or lack of care for the First Nations community? Would it be different if more management and senior management positions were held by First Nations? That is a question that the health authority should answer.
Hussain Guisti is a Thompson-based writer and doctor in the process of getting licensed.
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