Ottawa group may soon deal with Baffin-Larga house

IQALUIT — Inuit receiving medical treatment in Ottawa may soon have the option of staying in a more culturally-sensitive, Inuit-owned boarding home.

When the joint management board responsible for the delivery of Baffin’s medical services in Ottawa meets on Monday, its members are expected to agree, at least in principle, that some patients can stay at the Baffin-Larga residence instead of the hotel-like Rotel facility.

“I think for a great number of patients, it [the Rotel] provides services adequately, but it probably doesn’t meet the needs of the elderly and unilingual,” admitted Katrine Smith, president of the Ottawa Health Services Network Inc.

OSHNI is the non-profit group that has managed health care for Baffin residents in Ottawa since the Baffin Regional Health Board transferred its patient load from Montreal to Ottawa in 1998.

Since this transfer, the board has received numerous complaints about the Rotel, a non-profit residence, concerning its lack of facilities, supervision, interpreters, and special care for Inuit.

Many horror stories

Jerry Ell, the president of the Qikiqtaaluk Corporation, said he’s heard many “horror stories”- from injured patients left waiting for pick-up at the airport, to handicapped elders left to cope on their own.

When Ell’s mother was recently in Ottawa for treatment, she had to call back to Iqaluit for assistance when she couldn’t find an interpreter to help her.

This is not an unusual story, said Ell, who has supported QC’s joint-venture with Larga Enterprises to build an alternate boarding home in Ottawa, the Baffin-Larga House.

For months, Ell has been trying to promote its use. These efforts have been stepped up since the $900,000 building finally passed inspection a month ago.

“It’ll be used,” Ell said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that in the end it will be used.”

The Baffin-Larga House can accept up to 24 residents who will have access to a games room, sitting areas, country foods or kitchen-prepared meals.

Larga president Bill Davidson said that he intends to hire staff from Nunavut or with Nunavut experience.

“Unless you get people who know something about the North, it doesn’t work,” Davidson said. “Patient care is very important. But it’s got to be done right. A lot of recovery depends on whether the people are happy.”

Larga also runs a similar boarding home in Edmonton for patients from the Western Arctic and the Kitikmeot.

The two partners said they were extremely “frustrated” over the apparent reluctance of OSHNI to consider moving clients to Baffin-Larga.

And under the terms of the deal that the Baffin health board signed, it’s not that easy to force OSHNI to transfer patients to Baffin-Larga.

Mounting political pressure

OSHNI, not the board, agreed to deliver all medical and supplementary services to the board. In turn, OSHNI subcontracts with the Rotel for the delivery of residential services.

The current contract between the board and OSHNI lasts until March, 2001.

But due to mounting political pressure, OSHNI will likely agree to some change at the meeting scheduled for November 8 in Ottawa.

Even Nunavut’s health minister, Ed Picco, told the legislative assembly last week that his department was trying to “facilitate some kind of an understanding where we could facilitate people who are older, our elders, for example, unilingual people to the Inuit-specific home in Ottawa.”

“I reiterate that this government will not sit idly by if people, our patients, our constituents, the residents of Nunavut are being ill-treated at one of the boarding homes,” Picco said.

Switching to Baffin-Larga also makes good political sense to the Baffin health board.

“In principle, we would welcome an Inuit-owned enhanced level of service,” said board chairman Dennis Patterson.

That is, if it can provide the service at the same cost as the Rotel.

Petterson said before the board signed on with OSHNI, it was aware that patients would receive a more economical “Volkwagen”-style service than they had formerly enjoyed at the former “Cadillac”-level Baffin House in Montreal.

Patterson said that he had been worried about how people would adjust leaving a place where country foods were served on site for the Rotel — where it’s hard to find a fridge to store “a can of sardines, less a fish”.

But Patterson said the board was reassured by the strong Inuit community presence in Ottawa and promises from OSHNI that they would provide economic and reliable services.

Patterson said that the Baffin-Larga House was not an option at that time.

Expense a major concern

Despite reports of “regrettable” incidents and oversights at the Rotel, Patterson said that OSHNI has delivered on its contract and kept within costs.

Expense is still a major concern at the board, particularly when an increasing number of patients end up in the South for medical treatment.

One hurdle that Baffin-Larga faces is its limited capacity to supply service. This could increase its cost.

And sometimes 50 patients and escorts from the Baffin region are in Ottawa at any one time.

But Patterson suggested that some younger, bilingual Inuit might actually prefer the more independent atmosphere at the Rotel and not require special services during their stay there.

OSNI’s Smith said that she wished her group had had more time to evaluate the situation and take action to change the Rotel, instead of being presented with a total changeover to Baffin-Larga House.