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.
