{"id":245627,"date":"2025-10-28T12:50:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T12:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245627\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T12:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T12:50:12","slug":"500-indigenous-people-in-sask-have-complained-about-accessing-health-care-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/245627\/","title":{"rendered":"500 Indigenous people in Sask. have complained about accessing health care: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Saskatchewan First Nations health ombudsperson says there\u2019s still a lot of work to be done in addressing discrimination in the province\u2019s health-care system.<\/p>\n

Ombudsperson Dianne Lafond released a report that the independent office has been working on, with findings from July 2023 to March 31, 2025.<\/p>\n

In the two years since the office opened, it has received around 500 complaints from Indigenous people who have faced challenges accessing the help they need in the medical field. <\/p>\n

Lafond said 64 per cent of the cases derived from complaints and issues associated with the services of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).<\/p>\n

She said the majority of the complaints come from remote northern communities that have never been in proximity to health-care access and finally have a space to voice their concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the complaints are from rural hospitals [whose] doors are closed so there’s no access to services,\u201d Lafond said at a Monday media conference in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the reports that I’m receiving, they can be closed at any given time due to no staffing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ADianne Lafond, the First Nations health ombudsperson for Saskatchewan, speaks at a news conference to reveal the findings of a two-year report. (Don Somers\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Similar reports relating to hospital closures were also coming from central areas, like Shelbrooke. People in Saskatoon complained of wait times of longer than 20 hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see people that are sitting in the waiting rooms for 12, 15, 20 hours, that are very sick and they end up going home because they’re tired of waiting,\u201d Lafond said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe those pressures are being felt by everyone, but for Indigenous people, they’re amplified from the stories that we’re told.\u201d<\/p>\n

WATCH | SHA announced new policy this year to honour Indigenous hair traditions:\"\"<\/p>\n

Sask. Health Authority announces new policy to honour Indigenous hair traditions<\/p>\n

The policy is meant to protect the cultural and spiritual significance of hair for Indigenous patients in Saskatchewan health-care settings.<\/p>\n

Lafond said many people have also come forward with stories of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in the province\u2019s health-care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely have whistleblowers that come in,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have families that have experienced those things in the hospitals and are too afraid to pursue [them].\u201d<\/p>\n

It was implied at the news conference that this information has come from people who are still employed at health-care facilities and have signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) prohibiting them from making any formal complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt silences the victim,\u201d said Heather Bear, chair of the office\u2019s board of directors. \u201cWe are working hard to ensure that at some point these NDAs are going to be banned so that people are not silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first of its kind in Canada<\/p>\n

Lafond’s office is the only one of its kind in the country. She said although it’s been a privilege to be a leader for other provinces, it’s challenging to lead a one-of-a-kind initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven’t had benchmarks to compare to, or a road map of how we’re gonna do this, but we’ve done an amazing job,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s measured by the people that have come to our office, over 500, how they feel when they leave, how they can come into our boardrooms and smudge; we talk, we shed tears, but we heal.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Monday morning, the SHA said it had not seen a copy of the report but plans to review it.<\/p>\n

The SHA did not address CBC\u2019s questions about abuse allegations, but said in a written statement that it \u201cwill review their report and work with them to address their specific concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SHA’s statement said it welcomes \u201cthe perspectives shared by the First Nations Health Ombudsperson as we continue working together toward a more accountable, culturally responsive, and inclusive health system for all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan First Nations health ombudsperson says there\u2019s still a lot of work to be done in addressing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-245627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}