First Nations leaders are raising concerns about the quality of health care their citizens receive after the chief of a northern Manitoba First Nation waited in pain for about 13 hours at a Winnipeg hospital last month.

Little Grand Rapids First Nation Chief Clinton Keeper, a cancer survivor, recently needed emergency medical care after experiencing complications from a kidney stone that obstructed his urinary tract, the Southern Chiefs’ Organization said in a news release last week.

He was assessed, hospitalized and eventually discharged, but his condition got worse and he returned to Grace Hospital in Winnipeg by ambulance on June 22, Keeper said at a Wednesday press conference in Ottawa, where leaders are gathered for the Assembly of First Nations’ Annual General Assembly.