Stop healing the healthy and start healing the sick

I have been listening to the sessions of the Nunavut legislature and have heard that new health centres are going to be built in some Nunavut communities. But these communities already have health centres.

I plead with you from the heart. Please do not build more health centres at this time. There are priorities you should undertake before building these health centres. For example, do a performance review on your nurses and doctors. Or make sure your medical equipment is up to standard.

We are losing many family members to terminal illness. Many people who leave their communities to go to Iqaluit and Ottawa hospitals are dying. Sometimes symptoms can take a whole year to be diagnosed.

Patients travel to these hospitals several times for check-ups before they die. Because it is only when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body that it is finally found. By that time, it is too late to help the person recover.

Thirty years ago, doctors used to find illness at the early stage of development. Treatment would be performed through an operation or complete rest. These doctors and nurses used their intelligence. Their wisdom came from God’s grace.

The equipment the doctors and nurses use today do not come from intelligence or wisdom. Computerized machines will not speak if they make a mistake, however, doctors seem to place a lot of trust in them.

Please put Inuit first. Practise measures to help them receive proper treatment before we lose all our knowledgeable elders. The medical community is too readily relying on physical equipment for detecting and treating a person’s health problems. I am very concerned about the way my fellow Inuit are treated – with no respect – when they are sick.

Treating and healing the sick is not being done by nurses and doctors as it should be anymore. I am compelled to say this: Don’t try healing healthy people. It is the sick you must heal first.

Your departmental priorities for prevention programs target healthy people. One example is prevention programs for smoking. This group is your priority while the sick are suffering.

I write this letter in desperation. My heart aches on behalf of those who are sick, who need my compassion and who need healing.

Meeka Arnakaq
Pangnirtung