Care closer to home arrives in Rankin Inlet

SARA MINOGUE

Premier Paul Okalik, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, Kivalliq MLAs and regional mayors will descend on Rankin Inlet Wednesday for the long-awaited grand opening of the Kivalliq health centre – only to find that they are three weeks late.

“The official opening was supposed to coincide with actually seeing people, but we’ve been seeing people for three weeks now,” said Norman Hatlevik, regional executive director for the department of health and social services.

A fire at the old health centre in August caused enough smoke damage to close the building for repairs, and force doctors, nurses and midwives to pack up and move into temporary headquarters in the cramped five-room birthing centre.

Health services were limited to medical emergencies for a week while the fire marshal and the department of community and government services rushed to complete inspections on their new headquarters – a $16-million “state-of-the-art” regional health centre.

Now, instead of flying to Churchill or Winnipeg, patients in the Kivalliq region can go to Rankin Inlet for medical tests. The centre will be equipped with a new ultrasound machine, and doctors will be able to do fluoroscopy – living X-rays that allow them to watch a patient’s insides like a film.

By mid to late October, patients who need to stay overnight in the hospital will be able to do so in one of 10 patient beds, attended by nurses 24 hours a day.

Emergency services will be “bigger and better,” Hatlevik said. The ambulance, for example, will be parked at the health centre rather than somewhere else in town.

Expectant mothers will be able to visit one of four midwives or two maternity care workers in the birthing centre, which will be moved inside of the new health centre. Previously, new moms visited the birthing centre for pre- and post-natal care, but had to go to the health centre for deliveries.

The centre will also offer palliative care, for patients who are terminally ill and cannot be treated at home. Instead of choosing who travels South with a dying loved one, family of terminally ill patients will have room to stay overnight or make a quiet cup of tea.

A small pharmacy – staffed by a pharmacy technician – will help nurses handle medication, and could offer services to community health centres in the region.

Staffing for the health centre is almost complete.

Forty-seven new full-time and part-time employees are slowly joining the old staff of 24. Eventually, 71 people will have jobs at the new health centre.

Most of the clinical staff has been recruited, or will be by the time all services are up and running.

Right now there are six doctors working in Rankin, but only three are long-term. The department has funding to eventually hire seven doctors in total. Nine nurses from India and the Philippines have already been hired, and in six to eight weeks, they will arrive in Rankin after four weeks of orientation training in Iqaluit.

Four registered laboratory technicians have been hired to run the new lab, where test results can be examined. The only opening left in the radiology department is for one person who can do X-ray and ultrasound.

An assistant laboratory technician and assistant radiologist have yet to be hired. These are trainee positions for beneficiaries.

“We’ll hopefully train them right up to be certified lab and radiology techs,” Hatlevik said.

There are only 16 workers left to recruit, Hatlevik said. These are for housekeeping, dietary and laundry jobs.

Staff housing, Hatlevik said, is “looking pretty good.”

The Nunavut Housing Corp. built a new 10-plex last year, with four single units and six doubles. The Government of Nunavut’s Human Resources department has been working on finding other units for newcomers, but it could be a tight squeeze for local people who find work at the centre.

“Quite a few of the support staff and administration staff will be local hires,” Hatlevik said. “It’s anticipated they will already have housing here.”

Still to come is a medical boarding home where patients can stay while waiting for appointments or flights. The department plans to build a new boarding home, Hatlevik said, which is to open next fall. In the meantime, patients from smaller communities will be lodged in local hotels or at one of several bed and breakfasts.

Renovations at the old health centre are almost complete. That building will serve as headquarters for public health, community programs, rehabilitation programs and home care.

A similar health centre will open in Cambridge Bay on Oct. 12.