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.