Addressing Health Inequities in BC Emergency Care
The BC Emergency Medicine Network (EMN) is committed to ensuring equity in health care for all residents of British Columbia.
The World Health Organization defines equity as “the absence of avoidable or remediable differences among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically.” Health inequities are the result of systemic health status differences in populations. More simply, health inequities are both unfair, and unjust.
As a network of emergency care providers across BC, we commit to leveraging our influence to support and advocate for changes to ensure the health care system in BC is safe and equitable. The EM Network fully supports the ongoing provincial investigation into Indigenous-specific discrimination in the BC health care system and commits to:
- Promoting fairness in BC emergency health care practices and working toward reducing systemic health inequities.
- Providing access to vetted educational materials to promote the delivery of culturally safe care.
- Listening to patient stories and understand what we can do as individuals and as an organization to increase cultural safety in BC emergency care.
The vision of the EM Network is Exceptional Emergency Care. Everywhere. Together, let’s work to ensure excellence in emergency care for all.
We welcome your questions and feedback. To get in touch, please email connect@bcemergencynetwork.ca.
Learn More
We are grateful to our partners in the health care community for their work promoting cultural safety and humility, and encourage others to explore the resources they have created:
San’yas Indigenous Cultural Safety Training – Provincial Health Services Authority
– Available at no cost to emergency health care providers in BC. To register, you must use your health authority email address.
Indigenous Health in the ED: The Role of Implicit Bias – James Liu, BC Emergency Medicine Network
Cultural Safety and Cultural Humility Webinars – First Nations Health Authority
Indigenous Engagement and Cultural Safety Guidebook: A Resource for Primary Care Networks – BC Ministry of Health
Media statement on behalf of BC health authorities: Allegations of systemic racism against Indigenous People in BC hospitals – Provincial Health Services Authority
Equity – World Health Organization
