A political economic history of medical and dental care in Nunavut, Canada.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To describe the historical development of medical and dental care in the territory of Nunavut, Canada. STUDY DESIGN: Ethnographic case study using political economy as a mode of explanation. METHODS: Participant observations, document reviews and stakeholder interviews, conducted over a four-year period. RESULTS: There is a clear and now long-term movement from state and professionally controlled health care delivery to Indigenous control over care. CONCLUSIONS: Indigenous groups increasingly hold control over health care delivery through a complex form of management that straddles both public and private organisational spheres.