Keewatin hamlets outraged at health boards

At least three Keewatin hamlet councils are outraged at a new dental services deal put together by the Keewatin Regional Health Board.

Under that deal ­ made between the Keewatin health board and a new private company called Kiguti Dental Services ­ all the Keewatin’s dental therapists will be fired.

In their place, private dentists working for Kiguti are supposed to do the same job within the Keewatin’s schools that the dental therapists used to do.

But three hamlet councils, along with the Keewatin Divisional board of Education, say the new deal will hurt preventative dental care for Keewatin children.

Baker Lake wants to go it alone

The hamlet council of Baker Lake has even instructed its lawyer to find a way for the community to separate from their regional health board.

They say a recent KRHB decision to dismiss the community’s dental therapist ­ without consulting the community ­ is “the final atrocity that the KRHB shall inflict on the people of Baker Lake.”

At a council meeting held May 8, Baker Lake hamlet councillors passed an angry resolution condemning the health board’s action.

“Local needs have not been addressed adequately by the existing KRHB,” Baker Lake Mayor William Noah said in a letter to health board trustees. “Separation and the formation of our own local Health Society is the only course of action which remains open to us.”

Arviat, Baker, Rankin want own funding

Meanwhile, the mayor of Arviat has written to Elizabeth Palfrey, the chair of the Keewatin health board, and to Health Minister Kelvin Ng, to say his hamlet council wants dental therapy funding transfered to it from the GNWT.

“Hamlet Council is extremely disappointed with the unilateral decision to cancel the dental therapy program without any consultation with the communities,” Arviat Mayor Peter Kritaqliluk said in a letter to the health board.

“The Hamlet of Arviat will seek from the Minister of Health and Social Services block funding for the dental therapy program to the community of Arviat.”

And in a separate letter addressed to Kelvin Ng, Kritaqliluk said Arviat eventually wants complete control of all health care in Arviat.

“In light of the total lack of consultation, or apparently the will to consult, demonstrated by the KRHB, the Hamlet of Arviat would like to have your department block fund this community for its portion of the region’s dental therapy program immediately, with the intent being to assume all health care funding for this community in a block funding arrangement.

And at a May 15 meeting, the Rankin Inlet hamlet council passed a motion “to look into the possibilities of taking over the Dental Therapy Program in Rankin Inlet.”

In a letter dated May 20, Rankin Inlet Mayor John Hickes told the health board’s executive director, James Egan, that his council wants “to start negotiations immediately.”

Board says dental care will get better

For its part, the Keewatin health board says the new arrangement will improve the quality of dental services in the Keewatin region.

“This new program guarantees preventive dental health care to all children, even those who may not be eligible under the non-insured benefits program or covered by private insurance,” the board says in a May 8 press release.

They also say they’ll help the Keewatin’s fired dental therapists get new jobs.

“[The] KRHB has done their utmost to ensure an orderly transitiion and has tried to assist the therapists by facilitating two guaranteed positions for them elsewhere in the Territories and by facilitating a potential position with Kiguti Dental Services if the therapists so desire,” James Egan said in the health board press release.

In addition, the health board says new Inuit “dental assistants” will get training for new jobs.

The new regional dental service is supposed to start July 1.

Kiguti Dental Services Ltd., the company contracted by the Keewatin health board to provide new dental care system, is owned 49 per cent by Tapiriit Development Ltd.

The rest of the company is owned by Yellowknife dentist Hassan Adam ­ 27 per cent ­ and Iqaluit dentist Charles Pastori ­ 24 per cent.