Ottawa or Montreal? New Baffin committee will choose

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT – A group of eight Baffin residents will review southern medical services in Montreal and Ottawa and recommend which service the Baffin health board should accept for the future.

Members of the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board are expected to make a decision on the future of southern medical services when they meet in Iqaluit January 26.

Board members decided last September to sever its 30-year tie with the Montreal-McGill program and contract specialists services from the Ottawa Heart Institute.

The move came in response to criticisms former health board chair Ann Hanson said she was hearing about the Montreal service. An evaluation of that service last May revealed 14 strengths with the McGill contract compared to an overwhelming 50 obstacles.

At the time the administration also suggested the board could save about $450,000 in the move.

The board was heavily criticized for its decision and Health Minister Kelvin Ng ordered it to provide a cost analysis of the move. Since that decision, both the chair and chief executive officer have been replaced.

Patients travelling to both cities

Currently Baffin patients are travelling to both cities to access medical services.

Interim chair Dennis Patterson, who was appointed in October after Hanson resigned, announced the appointment this week of a review committee made up of eight Baffin residents.

That committee will review and compare services provided by the McGill-Baffin program and the Ottawa Heart Institute.

“We can’t go on forever with two services,” Patterson said about the need to make a quick choice.

Proposals from each provider

The Montreal and Ottawa health organizations will each submit proposals next week.

They were asked to detail how each would provide specialist services, hospital inpatient care with social work assistance, patient travel, meals and accommodation.

They were also asked to describe how each would implement a telehealth system in the region. The Ottawa Heart Institute has been providing this service in Kimmirut and Pond Inlet for more than a year. A strategy to recruit doctors and nurses to the area will also be included in the proposals.

Former Iqaluit Mayor Joe Kunuk will chair the committee, which also includes representatives from Nunavut Arctic College, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the GNWT health department and the Baffin Divisional Board of Education.

The committee will meet the week of January 19.