The McGilll University Health Centre (MUHC) is looking into the care given to an Indigenous woman who died two months after she was told it would cost more than $1,000 to see a doctor because she didn’t have a medical insurance card.

A coroner told CTV Montreal that despite the lack of a card she should have received better care.

According to the MUHC, Kimberly Gloade, 44, walked into the Royal Victoria Hospital last February and was seen by a triage nurse who ordered blood tests for her. Gloade was then sent to admissions where she would have had to show her RAMQ card.

It’s unclear what transpired after this point but she left because she felt she couldn’t afford the treatment.

In a letter to her family in New Brunswick, Gloade told them her card had been stolen from a laundromat and wrote that during her visit to the hospital she was told it would cost her $1,400 to see a doctor.

According to the coroner’s report, Gloade died from advanced cirrhosis of the liver caused by years of substance abuse.

Gloade had been dealing with alcohol issues as well as had been homeless for a time.

The report says that while her death may not have been prevented she deserved to know her liver was failing.

"This is not about preventing a death, which may have been inevitable, but simply about the minimal accompaniment that decency requires in the face of death from a society worthy of its name," coroner Jacques Ramsay wrote in his report.

Gloade’s family want to know why no one at the hospital made it clear that her inability to pay should not have stopped her from receiving care.

“We welcome people around the world who don't have medical cards and do treat them in an emergency fashion. Why did not that person be treated as such?” said Patients’ Rights Defender Paul Brunet.

MUHC told CTV Montreal it never refuses care to anyone but by law they have to advise patients that without proof of medical insurance they can be charged. Something officials said happens eight to 10 times a day, or 3,000 times a year.

Gloade’s family reportedly believes stigma or racism may have played a role. The head of the native women's shelter of Montreal says if it did, it wouldn't be a first.

"I have heard such horrible stories about a woman that brings in her baby, and her baby's hand is blue and hospitals will say, 'Oh well you Indians you tie up your babies too tight in the tikinagan or the cradleboard that's why' and sent her home,'" said Nakuset.

The MUHC has opened an investigation into the incident to make sure it doesn't happen again. Officials say they have developed programs to be more culturally sensitive to their indigenous patients.

With files from CTV Montreal’s Caroline Van Vlaardingen