Unilingual elders in Nunavut may get medical escorts on demand

Health Minister Paul Okalik says unilingual Inuit elders will once again have the option of a paid escort when they travel south for medical reasons. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

Nunavut elders travelling outside the territory for medical treatment may now choose to have an escort accompany them if they speak only Inuktitut.

Health minister Paul Okalik announced the change to the government’s medical travel policy during a minister’s statement in Nunavut’s legislature March 5.

“Today we recognize that escorts for unilingual elders participate in the continuum of health care for elders,” Okalik said.

“This includes reducing stress during travel and ensuring comfort before and after appointments.”

The medical travel policy, aimed at elders 65 years and older, had been revised in June 2013, catching some MLAs by surprise.

That revision included offering unilingual elders the choice of an escort for medical travel only if the southern treatment facility did not have interpreters available.

But Okalik’s predecessor, Monica Ell, committed the health department to evaluating those revisions, Okalik said.

And that review, which was recently completed, focused specifically on the impacts relating to escorts for elders, Okalik added.

This policy has undergone a number of revisions over the past few years.

Before the 2013 revision, elders were automatically assigned escorts for medical travel outside Nunavut.

But some elders didn’t want escorts.

A 2013 Health Council of Canada report said some medical escorts took advantage of patients or would “disappear into town” upon arriving in the city where the elder received treatment.

The health department’s website, which has not yet been updated to reflect the changed policy, lists three other criteria that may qualify Nunavummiut for an escort for out-of-territory treatment:

• you require the consent of your parent or guardian;

• you have a mental or physical condition that makes you unable to travel alone; and,

• you need an escort to receive medical instructions for home medical or nursing procedures.