Given RFN people’s much poorer overall health status (compared with other Manitobans), it is not surprising that their annual rate of hospitalization is double (348 vs. 156 per 1000). Their total days of hospital care is 1.75 days per person per year compared to 1.05 days for all other Manitobans.

Note: Our analyses attribute all services (like physician visits or hospitalizations) to the area of residence of the person, not to where they went to the doctor or hospital.

Some northern Tribal Council areas tend to use hospitals within local RHAs, whereas others use Winnipeg hospitals. But large differences in location of hospitalization exist even for two northern remote Tribal Councils. Over 70% of KTC hospitalizations occurred within their RHA, compared to only around 20% for ILTC (most ILTC occurred in Winnipeg).

For a closer look at hospital use, several high-profile procedures were also measured. Only one example is presented here. Because heart-related conditions are often associated with diabetes one would expect higher cardiac surgery or diagnostic rates for RFN. In fact, RFN people do have higher or similar heart-related surgery rates. For example, for the diagnostic test called cardiac catheterization, RFN rates are 3.5 per 1000 compared to 2.7 for all other Manitobans.