KIA president says physicians give elders short shrift

RANKIN INLET – Don't get mad, get on the phone and call the Health and Social Services Department when Kivallirmiut report problems with the health care system.

So advised Bruce Peterkin, the department's assistant deputy minister for operations at the Kivalliq Inuit Association's annual general meeting in Rankin Inlet last month.

KIA delegates took Peterkin up on his offer, detailing a laundry list of complaints about health services in the Kivalliq region. Norm Hatlevick, the department's executive director in the Kivalliq, and his deputy, Harry Niakrok, also appeared.

KIA president Jose Kusugak said doctors and nurses need to spend more time with patients to provide better diagnoses. He complained that too many elders were having their health problems dismissed as simply being the product of aging.

"It is sometimes a problem, but it can't be the problem the number of times our elders are told they're over the hill," Kusugak said.

Peterkin told delegates his department is trying to train as many Inuit nurses as possible and "repatriate services from the south."

"We're beginning to train health workers here in Nunavut and they have jobs waiting for them when they graduate."

Kusugak said he appreciates the department suffers from endemic shortages of money and staff. And he offered Peterkin congratulations for the department's efforts to recruit Inuit health workers, especially nurses.

"They have no presumptions it seems of my family or my health."

The end of First Air jet passenger service between Rankin Inlet and Winnipeg means seemingly endless turbo-prop flights and a string of travel nightmares for patients headed south for treatment, health officials heard.

The Calm Air flight makes too many stops, said vice president Joe Kaludjak, while one of the Kivalliq Air planes lacks a washroom. And, he said patients were sometimes getting storm-stayed in Thompson, where there is nothing for them to do.

Hatlevick said there is now a phone line in Rankin Inlet staffed around the clock to deal with such travel issues. On average 30 people a day travel between Winnipeg and Nunavut for medical treatment, he said.

Peterkin said the department has been pushing Kivalliq Air to install bathrooms on planes that don't have them. As for the Calm Air schedule, Peterkin said the department has little control over it.

He acknowledged that the flight, which takes up to five hours with stops in Arviat, Churchill or Thompson, is a long one for patients.

"If you are not well it seems like it's forever," he said.

Health staff also heard demands for more Inuktitut-language counselling services for youth and for the country food served at Kivalliq Larga in Winnipeg to come from the Kivalliq region, instead of the Kitikmeot as it does now.