Emergency departments are being told to build designated waiting rooms with Aboriginal art for indigenous patients.
Hospitals throughout New South Wales are now under a policy issued by the state’s health department to create areas dedicated to Aboriginal patients.
The policy is an attempt to keep patients from leaving hospitals before they have been treated.
Emergency departments at every hospital in NSW are being told to build designated waiting rooms for Aboriginal patients
Relatives and carers may also be encouraged to stay in the new dedicated rooms or in a ‘culturally appropriate space’ which hospital bosses should identify.
But the policy has drawn criticism from Aboriginal leaders with one suggesting the move as ‘overkill’, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Figures from NSW Health suggest there is a higher number of Aboriginal patients who stop waiting for treatment compared to non-Aboriginal patients.
A trial testing the changes found the number of Aboriginal patients who left the emergency department before treatment was halved.
Warren Mundine said the real issue of tackling integration needed to be addressed and did not want segregation of the past to return
The state government says the use of ‘local Aboriginal art can provide links to culture and community’.
In the policy paper, it acknowledges the efforts required in ensuring Aboriginal patients feel safe to stay and wait for clinical treatment after triage.
The paper says: ‘Advice should be sought on appropriate art from the local Aboriginal community.
Hospitals throughout New South Wales are now under a policy issued by the state’s health department
‘If available in the hospital, relatives may access the designated Aboriginal waiting room for families and carers.
‘If no room exists, a culturally appropriate space within the local hospital should be identified.’
But the move has not been totally welcomed by the Aboriginal communities.
Warren Mundine told the Telegraph said the real issues of how to integrate Aboriginal patients needed to be addressed with the new policy risking a return to ‘segregated hospitals’ from the 1960s.
He added: ‘I understand why it needs to be done … but we don’t want it to be a long-term thing.
The state government says the use of ‘local Aboriginal art can provide links to culture and community’
‘If we can make it feel more comfortable that’s fine but then we need to work on the real issues.’
The move has been backed by the Public Health Association of Australia.
The body’s vice-president Carmen Parter said it took the ‘cultural dimension’ into consideration and tackled fears of ‘institutionalised racism’ in Australia’s hospitals.
‘People need to recognise, around the stolen generations, hospital institutions were part of that whole process of taking children from families.
‘There’s a deep ingrained distrust in communities around that.’
Hospitals will also have to maintain records to ‘monitor trends’ of ‘did not wait’ DNW patients from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal backgrounds.
They are encouraged to design strategies themselves ‘locally’ to resolve reasons for patients who decide not to stay.
The state government says it brings NSW in line with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare’s published guidance titled: Improving Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.
The policy is due for a review in 2023.