Repulse and Coral oppose GN medical travel plans

This letter is written further to the letter of Paul Landry regarding medical travel (Sept. 20).

In the not too distant past, the communities of Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour were reduced to being served by only one airline as a result of the practices of the department of health and social services. The bulk of the medical travel was accorded in favor of one airline over another, rather than having the services split equally.

Fortunately for the people of Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour, services of more than one airline have been reinstated to our communities.

Prior to the reduction of services to one airline, several letters pertaining to the preferential treatment in the medical travel situation were written to the minister of health, with no response.

After the services of more than one airline were reinstated, the department of health and social services committed to split medical travel equally among the carriers. Not much time passed when people started to question how long the equal splitting of service would last and how long it would take for the situation to revert to the preferential treatment of one carrier over another.

The scenario has arisen twice in the past two weeks whereby the medical travel was performed by way of charter, resulting in the scheduled airlines leaving with empty seats. A third related charter was scheduled for Oct. 2, for six patients travelling to Rankin Inlet, rather than using the scheduled service providers.

Should this practice be permitted to continue, it will only be a matter of time before the people of Repulse Bay and Coral Harbour are once again relegated to the services of only one carrier. Due to the limited size of the aircraft, baggage once again will be left behind, or loaded before the end destination.

Persons wishing to travel on non-medical – personal or business – trips once again will be over-charged for additional services required or be forced to stage their trips in segments because of the limited space.

Furthermore, a number of patients have written letters to the local health centre requesting travel only with a specific carrier yet these requests are for the most part, ignored. This situation has personally affected me twice in the past two weeks.

Brian McQuarrie
Senior Administrative Officer
Repulse Bay