{"id":313027,"date":"2025-11-28T21:11:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313027\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T21:11:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:11:14","slug":"nlhs-signs-new-mou-to-improve-indigenous-health-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/313027\/","title":{"rendered":"NLHS signs new MOU to improve Indigenous health outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS) has signed a memorandum of understanding to better health and well-being outcomes for the province&#8217;s Indigenous population.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday&#8217;s signing in Corner Brook was the first in what will be a series of signings with other Indigenous groups in the province. The Qalipu First Nation and Miawpukek First Nation were the first two groups to sign the MOU.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The health outcomes of Indigenous people are far, far worse than those people who are non-Indigenous. The data is absolutely clear, and our health-care delivery systems for Indigenous people are deficient,&#8221; health authority CEO Pat Parfrey told reporters Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are all areas with deficiencies that we need to rectify.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Parfrey said there are particular problems around family care, long-term care, mental health care, Labrador&#8217;s integration into the provincial ambulance system and overall access to health care.<\/p>\n<p>He said addressing these problems comes in the form of things like improving virtual care in northern Labrador and providing more beds for patients in the new hospital in Corner Brook.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Bringing the care to the people, and by that I mean bringing providers that can go to coastal clinics and that can use virtual care \u2026 that those types of things help immediately,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Parfrey wants to sign similar MOUs with the Nunatsiavut government, Mushuau Innu First Nation and Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation at a later date, but each MOU will be distinct based on the needs of each Indigenous population.<\/p>\n<p>He hopes to move quickly to address problems currently facing Indigenous populations.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If we&#8217;re not getting some changes within the next year, or even months, we are failing,&#8221; Parfrey said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A woman with short brown hair and glasses sits at a microphone.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764364274_901_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Health Minister Lela Evans says she believes the MOU will help health outcomes across Newfoundland and Labrador. (Colleen Connors\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>Health Minister Lela Evans, also the MHA for Torngat Mountains in northern Labrador, said she is thrilled to support the MOU.<\/p>\n<p>An outspoken advocate for health care across Labrador while she was in opposition, Evans said she values the MOU as a tool that will bring Indigenous voices to the table.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think this is going to help everybody in the province,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think what&#8217;s going to happen is the service providers for health [care] is going to start to extend what&#8217;s in this MOU and the Indigenous health services to the rest of the province. And we&#8217;re actually going to end up having better patient care because of the voices of Indigenous people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Qalipu First Nation Chief Jenny Brake said the MOU has been years in the making and she hopes it marks a change for Indigenous health care.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s so many factors that impact Indigenous people in this province, and I hope that we get to a day where we don&#8217;t really have to look so much to the accord. We don&#8217;t have to think about that, because we&#8217;re all on an equal playing field.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Download our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/newsapp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">free CBC News app<\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/subscriptions.cbc.ca\/listmanagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">daily headlines newsletter here<\/a>. Click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/newfoundland-labrador\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here to visit our landing page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-313027","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\/313027","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=313027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}