Ontario has been facing an ongoing issue in the health-care system, a lack of Black doctors to assist and encourage skeptical Black residents to seek medical assistance.
“Rise up, we need you. This is your time,” Dr. Kwadwo Kyeremanteng, a critical care and palliative care physician at The Ottawa Hospital, told Now Toronto.
Kyeremanteng is one of many Black physicians across the province using his voice during Black History Month, and all year round, to motivate Black individuals to consider a career in medicine.
“Your patients need you, this system needs you,” he said. We know that based on the colour of your skin, you get treated differently, and nothing seems to change until there’s representation.”
BLACK DOCTORS REPRESENT 2.3% OF ONTARIO’S POPULATION
Black physicians account for only 2.3 per cent of the province’s population, but 4.5 per cent of Ontarians are Black, according to 2018 data. In addition, it will reportedly take 15 years to increase the representation of Black physicians, and at this rate, it will take 40 years to achieve parity.
The Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario (BPAO) has been working hard to grow the number of Black doctors across the province.
Founded in 2007, the not-for-profit works for the equitable representation of the Black population in medicine and to eliminate racialized health disparities.
“Our group kind of came out of, you know, a smaller kind of social network of Black physicians back in 2007 because we recognized we were underrepresented. There are lots of challenges going through training and then also, you know, more challenges being in practice,” BPAO President Dr. Andrew Thomas told Now Toronto.
Thomas said providing a community where Black physicians could come together remains core to the group’s agenda. The BPAO provides networking opportunities with other doctors, forums and an annual health symposium, coming up on Feb. 25.
OBSTACLES IMPACTING BLACK PEOPLE FROM BECOMING DOCTORS
The BPAO acknowledges there are several factors preventing Black people from entering the health-care field, including the first step of getting accepted into medical school.
“There’s a lot of bias that can go into admissions. Many, many people came together to bring to life, and we’re seeing more and more medical schools adopt what we’re calling a Black applicant stream, which doesn’t set any special criteria for Black applicants. Essentially, it just helps to even the playing field,” Thomas said.
He said the stream allows Black applicants to self-identify and to ensure there is more Black representation on the panels that adjudicate applicants.
Creating this stream appears to be working. Between 2018 and 2021, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto has seen an increase in both the number of Black applicants (76%) and enrolment (50%), according to the BPAO.
Kyeremanteng acknowledged that Black individuals will go through adversity “to get a seat at the table” but when they arrive they’re considered “a legend.”
“Some of my proudest moments are those times where you get to be a voice for those that can’t, that are underrepresented or that have been discriminated against. It’s just time, I guess it’s like enough is enough,” he said.
“I can’t count now, whether it’s been a physician or a leadership position, where me being in a spot to advocate for our people has made a difference. Like, if I wasn’t there, that sickle cell patient would have gone through hours of agony,” he added.
RACISM STILL PREVALENT IN HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM
Unfortunately, getting into med school is not the only hurdle Black physicians will likely face. Many have reported incidents of racism by both their peers and patients.
More than 70 per cent of Ontario physicians reported negative experiences based on their race, according to a study by the BPAO in 2018.
“They experienced anti-Black racism or negative consequences basically because of how they looked. And that could be anywhere from you know, microaggressions to some folks sort of shared they had actually overt experiences of racism where patients told them they don’t want to be seen by this doctor,” Thomas said.
Thomas himself has faced his share of microaggressions and discrimination in the workplace. He currently works as an urgent care doctor at a jail in Lindsay, Ont. and says he was not exactly welcomed when he first started working there.
“I, as a family doc, you know, experience some microaggressions, not every day but most days. Especially some of the spaces that I work in that are traditionally not used to seeing a Black doc,” he said.
“I remember one of the first few times I went there some of the looks I got from the correctional officers, you know, they didn’t have to say it but, you know, it was almost like, ‘Why are you here, you don’t belong here. What happened that you are roaming freely around this jail?’ You know, little comments and things like that,” he added.
Kyeremanteng has also encountered discrimination throughout his health-care journey, beginning when he was a med student and even recently when he became the head of the critical care department at The Ottawa Hospital.
“Throughout my career, you’d get patients say stuff like, ‘When’s the real doctor coming in the room? I don’t want to be treated by an N-word.’ So that’s been throughout my career, and if I’m being honest it’s rarer these days, but certainly it happens,” he shared.
“And even a couple of months ago, one of the nurses presented me as the Department Chief and the patient was like, ‘No way, this guy’s gotta be some chief from some African tribe or something,’” he added.
Thomas added the BPAO provides a safe space to help Black health-care workers meet others in the field where they can receive support, share stories, and essentially assist with preventing physician burnout.
THERE’S STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
By getting more Black doctors to join the health-care sector, Thomas said Black patients will be more encouraged to seek medical care.
“…The trust piece really has been missing for a long time. And knowing that we’re out there and we’re helping to move the bar to make it a more equitable system, I think people then feel a little bit less disenfranchised by the whole thing and then are probably more likely to engage and then get their diabetes checked or high blood pressure checked,” he said.
Thomas conceded that misinformation along with homegrown experiences where Black patients have been harmed by the health-care system has unfortunately resulted in many still being skeptical.
Kyeremanteng added that the mistrust is “justifiably there” and that is why representation in the health-care system is critical.
“This is part of why we’d like to see that shift, right. If the face of medicine can change, here’s hoping some of these issues could too,” he said.
One way the BPAO is working to regain that trust is by getting involved in the community, such as the vaccine clinics it held throughout the pandemic.
In fact, the organization has provided 326 health clinics and over 75,600 vaccine doses across the province to date.
“There was a lot of like relational work…through the community health centres, and we always like to keep that connection between our physicians and community health centres, because culturally appropriate care is not representative the way it needs to be,” BPAO Executive Director Chenai Kadungure told Now Toronto.
Thomas shared that a mother who attended one clinic FaceTimed her hesitant son in an effort to convince him to come and get his vaccine.
“At one of those pop-ups, we had Jamaican patties and just there were lots of Black people around and she kind of showed around (on her phone) and he kind of looked and ultimately felt like this is a safe place to get a vaccine. And later on, he showed up and got his first dose,” Thomas explained.
50 CENTS TO A $10 PROBLEM
Both Kyeremanteng and the BPAO believe the government is not doing enough to address the systemic barriers in the health-care system or to improve the mistrust.
Kadungure said right now it appears the government is only offering band-aid solutions.
“If you’re looking at health, these are long-term things. You can’t say you’re going to give one-year funding to addressing some health concern because you’re looking at five to 10 years if you really want to make an impact. So I always joke and say, it’s like you’re giving 50 cents to a $10 problem,” she said.
In an effort to get more Black Ontarians to obtain medical assistance, Kyeremanteng said politics must be eliminated from the strategy.
“Let the data drive decisions, and as we try and intervene, listen to the community, listen to the public, what their concerns are, establish that trust.”
Kyeremanteng is also encouraging Black Ontarians to get medical attention when they need it before it’s too late.
“Once the door opens and you get to a certain point, life gets way more complicated. The point where you see me in an ICU, your life will never be the same.”
