TRANSCRIPT
Corey Dalton works as a GP in Perth.
An Indigenous doctor, he advocates for cultural safety in healthcare and building better working relationships with First Nations patients.
"I call it the water cooler talk when you hear people talking about an Indigenous patient, or their frustrations that they may have felt as a treating doctor with an Indigenous patient. But the issue with that is the full understanding of why, again, a patient may be behaving or having mistrust in a Western medicine perspective is what needs to be understood."
Dr Dalton says while a lot of people have cultural awareness, it needs to be developed further with cultural competency.
"For instance, a patient may not turn up to an appointment, or they may be late to an appointment. Or in fact, they'll turn up not just with themselves, but they'll turn up with family members to that appointment. It's about having that adaptability, working with them, seizing that opportunity to ensure that you are building that working relationship essentially between you as the GP and that patient."
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is calling for a $1.5 million federal investment over three years to develop a tool to monitor racism, that practitioners can use to encourage greater participation in the healthcare system among First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
According to a 2019 Deakin University study, the health effects of racism are estimated to cost Australia almost $38 billion a year.
RACGP President Dr Michael Wright says all Australians, and all GPs, deserve access to a health system free from racism.
"This small investment is crucial because it will help us to identify and address institutional racism. It's only by measuring and the existence of racism that we're going to be able to address it and remove it."
But there's not only concern about the effects of racism on healthcare.
In a separate proposal, the Greens are calling for a Workplace Racial Equality Agency.
Under their plan, $97.5 million would be used to better document and understand the extent of workplace racism, across both public and private employers.
Deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi says the need for an agency has never been more urgent.
"When people like me call out racism, we are the ones that are shut down rather than the perpetrators... And if workplaces won't do this voluntarily, then they have to be brought to the table kicking and screaming."
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has recognised doctors' concerns in a statement, saying:
"All health professionals have the right to work in a safe and healthy environment free from racism and aggression. The Government recognises that safety and security of the healthcare workforce is a major concern and is committed to working with stakeholders to support and promote safe working environments across the sector."
General Practitioner Corey Dalton says a toolkit for tackling racism would enable individual practices to self-measure.
"We've seen it work. We've seen the fact that if we move from a cultural awareness, to cultural proficiency, we create cultural safety. Cultural safety then encourages our patients to come in and seek healthcare. We help remove the barriers of the social determinants of health and we work through closing the gap targets. And with that, we have overall better health outcomes."
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners says funding is just the first step in changing attitudes.
