We need quality care in Kuujjuaq

Why are Inuit patients treated differently than non-local people? It seems like there is no human rights existing in our hospital.

Some nurses show attitude problems towards us, as if we have done something wrong to them. We cannot even see a doctor without an appointment, and when we finally see one, our sickness is already gone, not there anymore.

We need quality care in our community, especially since we have lost a lot of patients, and we should get normal check-ups for cancer at a certain age, instead of being just sent home without getting treatment.

We lost a very loving, caring person last year who could have been saved and cured. She was complaining for three months before she was diagnosed with liver cancer, and she was only sent down South when her nose was badly bleeding and she had pain behind her lungs. The doctors finally diagnosed her with liver cancer a month before she passed away.

It was very hard for me to accept that she was going to die. She wanted a good friend of ours to save her life, but that friend of ours was far away in California, so I made some calls to California.

That doctor said yes, she could have been cured if they had found out earlier.

As I have been listening to CBC Iqaluit, it really woke me up when they started talking about how nursing systems are poor in Nunavut. I think we also have a poor nursing system in Nunavik, too.

(Name withheld by request)
Kuujjuaq