Commonwealth_ New Statistics Canada‘s figures are highlighting an urgent public health issue: Black Canadians continue to have the country’s highest hospitalization rates for avoidable diseases. The pattern, observed over eight years and confirmed by figures in 2023/2024, is particularly alarming when viewed through the lens of access and equity for Black communities to healthcare services in Canada.
Preventable hospitalizations, according to the report, are hospitalizations for conditions that, in normal circumstances, would be successfully treated by adequate and timely primary care. They are conditions like asthma, diabetes, and hypertension—diseases that, if left untreated or poorly treated, worsen and require hospitalization.
According to the most recent figures, hospitalization rates for Black boys and men were 272 per 100,000, and for Black girls and women, they were 253 per 100,000. These hospitalization rates are higher than those of all other racialized and non-racialized groups. Chinese Canadians had the lowest rates, at 65 per 100,000 for boys and men and 52 per 100,000 for girls and women. The second group, non-racialized Canadians, had rates of 257 per 100,000 for men and 226 per 100,000 for women.
Health workers attribute the inequities to being a reflection of widespread problems of systemic injustice in Canada’s health sector. Black Canadians face multiple barriers to reaching primary care, such as low system trust based on previous and current experiences of racism, absence of culturally appropriate care, and underrepresentation of Black professionals in the healthcare sector.
In 2023, only 72 percent of Black Canadians reported having a primary health care provider to whom they could go, compared to 84 percent for non-racialized Canadians. It is one of the main drivers of the high rate of avoidable hospitalization admission among Black populations. The lack of Black medical personnel also contributes to the issue. Research has proven that patients who receive care from members of their cultural or racial group experience improved health outcomes. In spite of that, Black staff are still underrepresented in Canada’s healthcare sector. In 2020, a report from Academic Medicine Journal stated that only 2.3 percent of doctors who were practicing in Ontario in 2018 were Black.
These hospitalization-causing chronic illnesses are, specialists add, connected to the broader social determinants of health. Problems such as food insecurity, environmental contamination with toxins, and economic distress all impact health status. In some populations, limited availability of affordable, healthy food or living quarters has led to more widespread respiratory disease and diabetes.
Enhancing the living conditions of Black Canadians is a challenging task. Recruiting additional Black health-care workers and providing funding for Black-owned clinics contribute to boosting confidence in the health-care system and offering more culturally sensitive care. Other health-care workers utilize these clinics as training sites to educate them on the unique needs and requirements of Black patients.
Experts caution that despite their efforts, there will never be sufficient Black medical caregivers to care for the population. It calls for all healthcare providers to receive training in cultural competence and safety to deliver an equal kind of treatment on racial and cultural bases.
Other than increased representation and access, experts also advise increased collection and analysis of race-based health data. Health organizations and policymakers cannot understand the specific challenges of different communities, nor could they craft specialized interventions, if they do not have disaggregated data.
Release of this data strengthens the call to action on continuing health inequities in Black Canadians. It needs action, not additional acknowledgment of the issue. By investing in culturally sensitive care, increasing access, and improving data gathering, Canada can proceed boldly toward equity in health for all its groups. The report is a reminder that equitable health care is not simply a question of providing services; it’s a question of providing amenities that are accessible, reliable, and tailored to each population’s distinct requirements.
