Nunavut legislature to study Iqaluit hospital board idea

Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA Pat Angnakak succeeded last week in convincing her fellow MLAs that they need to seriously consider a hospital management board in Iqaluit (FILE PHOTO)

An Iqaluit MLA has breathed new life into the establishment of a hospital management board at Iqaluit’s Qikiqtani General Hospital.

Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu MLA Pat Angnakak, a long-time proponent of local control over hospital affairs, put forward a motion in the Nunavut legislature Nov. 6 to undertake a comprehensive review of the potential benefits of such a board.

That motion, seconded by fellow Iqaluit MLA George Hickes before it passed unanimously among elected members, called on the GN to report on the review’s findings on May 25, 2015 — the first day of the legislative assembly’s spring session.

“Across Canada, the standard mechanism for hospital governance is the board of management,” said Angnakak, who has asked the GN to look into the suggestion a number of times, including twice during legislature sittings this year.

There are many benefits to establishing a management board, Angnakak said, including:

• improving financial responsibility, as the GN struggles with yearly cost overruns;

• fund raising as a registered charity or society, which the GN cannot do;

• focusing on a vision and strategic plan, especially in the hiring and training of healthcare professionals;

• overseeing patient relations policy development to meet Nunavut’s unique cultural and linguistic characteristics; and,

• bringing a diverse range of expertise, business know-how and experience together for the hospital’s management.

“I am confident that when the government gives full consideration to establishing a board of management at the Qikiqtani General Hospital, the many benefits and merits of taking this step will be clearly demonstrated,” Angnakak said after the motion was introduced.

Health Minister Monica Ell said cabinet members discussed the motion and, “will perform a review as requested, to look at the merits and benefits but also the logistics, administrative and financial aspects of a board of management.”

But Ell asked for an amendment to the motion, to extend the date of reporting the review’s finding to the legislature’s fall sitting in 2015, which begins Oct. 19.

Both the amendment and the amended motion passed unanimously.

The GN inherited three regional health boards from the Northwest Territories government at the time of Nunavut’s creation in 1999, but scrapped the boards a year later.