Baffin House to stay open for now

IQALUIT Baffin region hospital patients will have a place to stay in Montreal after Sept. 30 but no one can say for how long.

Baffin House, the Baffin region’s 20-bed patient home in Montreal, will stay open for the forseeble future, said Rosalie Edwards-Dupre, Baffin House’s nurse manager.

“How our service will continue, and whether or not the staff will remain in the numbers they are now, will, of course, depend on the number of patients who will continue to be referred to us,” Edwards-Dupre said.

“But it’s a very loose time-frame that I’ve been given, and it may or may not hold true,” Edwards-Dupre said.

As of September 30, the McGill-Baffin program, under which Montreal medical specialists provided serves to Baffin residents, will end.

Baffin health officials say they’ll replace the service with a new deal they’re working out with the Ottawa Heart Institute.

But it’s still not clear when that service will start. The Baffin board is supposed to talk about the new contract at a meeting later this month.

Right now, the Baffin board has no medical specialist services.

They say, however, that doctor-patient relationships involving McGill-Baffin specialists will be “grandfathered” in the new deal.

That means patients who want to keep longstanding relationships with certain specialists in Montreal who know their medical histories will still be able to see those doctors.

That also means that for now Baffin House employees will continue to see Inuit patients from Baffin.

“After Sept. 30, we’ll be open and receiving patients, but we’ve been told there won’t be any new referrals down our way,” Edwards-Dupre said.

As for how many people will continue to work at Baffin House in the future, Edwards-Dupre said she doesn’t really know.

“I would assume we would not be staffed at current levels if decreasing numbers of patients are coming down, but there is nothing written in terms of time-frame or planning,” Edwards-Dupre said.

Baffin House opened in December of 1985, after Baffin patients had complained for years about inadequate patient accommodations in Montreal.

Before then, Baffin patients usually stayed in low-budget hotels and guest houses.

Right now, Baffin House employs four interpreters, one driver, a half-time manager, a liaison nurse, a housekeeper-cook, three “dietary-housekeeper aides,” and three night security people.

Edwards-Dupre said she doesn’t know what will happen to those people after more Baffin hospital services are provided by Ottawa institutions.