The B.C. Ministry of Health and the First Nations Health Authority will provide more than $2 million to expand a medical centre focused on the health needs of urban Indigenous people in Vancouver.
The health ministry and FNHA will provide more than $1.8 million in ongoing funding and over $200,000 in one-time funding to Lu’ma Medical Centre.
The government says in a statement that the money will be used to expand Indigenous primary-care services.
The ministry says the centre will soon be able to hire a dozen additional full-time equivalent health-care professionals and serve 1,750 new patients, bringing its total patient count to 2,900.
Lu’ma, which was founded to address the significant health disparities faced by Indigenous people, is in its third year of operation and provides health and outreach services.
The centre’s website says it has a four-to-five-week wait-list.
“We provide culturally integrated care through an Indigenous lens, which enables us to take back control of our own health and wellness through self-determination,” said the centre’s clinical director Michael Dumont in a statement.
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