Acute care units across N.W.T. still waiting on Indigenous patient advocates
The positions, announced last year, have still not been advertised
It's been almost a year since the N.W.T. territorial government announced plans for four new Indigenous patient advocates in territorial health centres, and the job postings have yet to be advertised.
The advocacy positions are part of the government's response to recommendations from an investigation into the death of elder Hugh Papik. He died of a stroke in 2016 after health care workers mistook his symptoms for drunkenness, delaying his treatment by six hours.
When Julie Green, minister of Health and Social Services, announced the establishment of the four positions for acute care settings in June 2021, the goal was to see them in place across the territory that year.
In December, when the jobs were still not posted, Nunakput MLA Jackie Jacobson asked the health minister if that deadline would be met, and Green said the new timeline was for early 2022.
David Maguire, manager of communications for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA), said there's a process involved with setting up the positions.
"As a new initiative, once the funding was approved then there is work to be done regarding developing a program and job descriptions," Maguire wrote in an email. "They then go through a job evaluation process before they are advertised; this is the step we are currently at."
The importance of the position has been established
"The issue of anti-Indigenous racism in our healthcare system has been around for as long as the territorial government has provided healthcare to residents," Green wrote when she made the announcement last year.
The advocacy positions were deemed "a new approach to improving cultural safety and patient experience," and were the result of the Cultural Safety Action Plan the territory established in 2018.
That plan was created in response to the investigation into Papik's death.
The Indigenous patient advocate positions are to be established in acute care units in Fort Smith, Hay River, Yellowknife, and Inuvik.