Current ads
Jobs
Tenders
Notices
General

Click below

New 24-hour care centres don't help Kivalliq: Curley

"If I was in the government, I would address all the regions equally"

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Rankin Inlet North MLA Tagak Curley has accused the government of Nunavut of shafting elders and handicapped patients in his region in its latest announcement about expanding new residential medicare in the territory.

Curley was reacting to the government's decision to open their next two "continuing care" facilities in Igloolik and Gjoa Haven. In the coming years, those communities will receive new services aimed at taking care of residents who need constant attention from a nurse or caretaker.

In a letter to Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut's health minister, on June 22, Curley suggests the health department is neglecting the needs of communities further south.

"It is clear that there is no benefit to the Kivalliq region," Curley said in an interview. "If I was in the government, I would address all the regions equally."

Curley said he's been lobbying the government for more long-term health care services in his region since tabling a petition in the legislative assembly in November. More than 200 people from Rankin Inlet signed a request started by resident Nancy Gordon, calling on the GN to build an elder's facility and increase "24-hour care" in the community.

Continuing care facilities are referred to commonly as "24-hour care" because their patients are under constant supervision from healthcare workers.

Curley said Rankin Inlet has a four-plex building that serves as an elders' residence, but argues the growing community deserves a larger facility like the Iqaluit elders home, which provides supervised care for about eight of its 17 residents.

In an interview, the health minister shot back at Curley's complaints. Aglukkaq explained that the two communities were chosen based on the needs of patients already seeking care outside the territory.

More than 50 residents currently receive treatment away from their homes in Nunavut. Aglukkaq said a study showed that Gjoa Haven and Igloolik were the highest represented communities of those patients.

"It's not a regional issue," Aglukkaq said. "It's base on who's going to get the care. Health is about more than facilities, it's about people.

"It's not a debate about what region gets what, and what region doesn't."

Aglukkaq pointed out that the Kivalliq region already has four residential care facilities, as well as the Kivalliq Health Centre in Rankin Inlet, which will open in the fall.

At least one of the facilities in Gjoa Haven and Igloolik will start taking patients by 2008. Aglukkaq said they will be open to residents from around Nunavut. Similarly, the Naja Isabelle Home in Chesterfield Inlet will take patients from outside the immediate community.

Even then, Aglukkaq said there won't be enough space for the more than 50 Nunavummiut getting care outside the territory.

She said most details for the new facilities will be worked out in community consultations, including staffing, budgets and the permitted number of patients.

The GN spends $4.7 million annually on continuing care services provided to residents outside Nunavut. The government's newly opened Naja Isabelle Home in Chesterfield Inlet cost $3.8-million to build.

TOP

Advertising
Specs, rates,
& maps
Multi-paper
buying services
About the market
E-mail ad dept

More Information