Nunavut spends more on health, but gets less, say circumpolar health experts

Canada should look to its northern, circumpolar neighbours to improve its health care delivery, suggest two circumpolar health experts in a paper published Nov. 1 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Canada is spending a lot of money in the North, say Susan Chatwood, president of the Canadian Society for Circumpolar Health, and Dr. Kue Young, co-chair of the Arctic Human Health Expert group.

”Nunavut’s per capita expenditures are the highest in the world, and health care alone consumes almost 30 per cent of the territory’s GDP [gross domestic product],” they say.

But all this money doesn’t improve the health outcomes in Nunavut where life expectancy is the lowest in Canada.

And Nunavut’s high level of spending isn’t the norm in the circumpolar North, the two authors point out.

Alaska’s per capita expenditures in health care are only 1.2 times those of the United States, the northern regions of the Nordic countries are “indistinguishable” in their health care spending from their southern regions, and Greenland’s per capita expenditures are 70 per cent those of Denmark.

“Only in various Siberian republics and regions do we see per capita expenditures [in health] that reach as high as nine times the Russian national level,” they say.

The two say Canada should develop more circumpolar, north-to-north partnerships to improve health delivery and results instead of looking in a north-south direction for inspiration.

“Inuit people in Iqaluit, Nunavut, would have much more to gain if their service providers looked for collaboration in Nuuk, Greenland, rather than in Ottawa, when exploring best practices for prevention, primary care services or research,” they say.

Canada should also do more northern health research and work more more closely with existing circumpolar groups like the Arctic Council, they suggest.