Ng orders review of health board plans

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT NWT Health Minister Kelvin Ng has ordered a review of planned changes to the way two Nunavut health boards have decided to offer medical services.

Ng, who announced the review this week after meeting with mayors and Inuit leaders in Rankin Inlet, said he wants assurances that recent changes proposed by the Keewatin and Baffin regional health boards won’t affect medical services.

“If I do find that’s the case, then I will intervene,” Ng said.

“But as it stands now, we are fairly comfortable that they are moving in the right direction as a result of having to make these types of decisions to try to improve service and to try to be a bit more efficient in the provision of the services.”

Report by Sept. 26

Six senior bureaucrats from the GNWT’s Department of Health, including Ng’s deputy minister Dave Ramsden, will conduct the review. They’ve been asked to report directly to Ng by Sept 26.

“I want it done in a quick, timely fashion, within the next couple of weeks, because some of these changes are contemplated for October 1st, which is just around the corner.”

Both Keewatin and Baffin health boards have come under fire from critics in recent weeks for choosing to end long-standing relationships with southern medical institutions.

Earlier this year the Keewatin Regional Health Board (KRHB) broke off talks with the University of Manitoba’s northern medical unit, which has provided the region with general and specialized health services for years.

A contract with McGill University to deliver specialist services to Baffin residents ends Sept. 30, but the Baffin Regional Health Board has yet to decide on a contract with the Ottawa Heart Institute to supply those services after that date.

The minister said he wants to know, specifically, how the boards can provide these health services during the transition periods.

“I guess there’s concern about, first of all, whether or not there’s still going to be the services available. The other issue is the pace of change,” Ng said.

Dismayed by what they believe to be lack of public consultation by the Keewatin board, hamlet councils in Rankin Inlet, Arviat and Baker Lake have already said they want to leave the regional health board.

Won’t deal with conflict allegations

But Ng said the health-board review won’t deal with the issue of consultation. Nor will the report address conflict-of-interest allegations, which have been swirling around Elizabeth Palfrey, the chair of the Keewatin board.

“I’m not so concerned with conflict of interest. I mean I am concerned, but this review is more primarily focused on the medical services. That’s where the general feel I get of the concern area is right now,” Ng said.

The announcement of the review comes two weeks after Kivallivik MLA Kevin O’Brien publicly requested that NWT commissioner Helen Maksagak conduct a public inquiry into the activities of the Keewatin Regional Health Board.

The commissioner has not yet made a decision to act on the request.

Ng said he has received support for the review from both health boards.

“Both the chairs I’ve spoken to, Ann Hanson and Betty Palfrey, accept us taking a look at how they plan to change over from their current practice.”