Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Oct 02/00) - The patients who use room nine in Iqaluit's Baffin Regional Hospital's adult ward never physically enter it.

Telehealth is in room nine and one large monitor projects the faces of the patients into the room. Nurses, specialists and mental health worker treat these patients through live visual feeds.

The government of Nunavut has pledged $1 million to expand this program and is currently seeking extra money from the federal government.

Premier Paul Okalik has made funding for telehealth a priority in light of the recent cash increases by the federal government for health and social services.

There's $1.3 billion up for grabs in technology and primary care funds and Okalik says the GN will be trying to dip in. "We have set aside a substantial amount of our own money for telehealth."

Okalik added he thinks this will help Nunavut get their fare share of the money pie.

The main chunk of health and social services funding is distributed through a per capita system which means Nunavut gets very little.

Currently three communities on Baffin Island use telehealth, Iqaluit, Cape Dorset and Pond Inlet. Two others are currently in a pilot phase in Cambridge Bay and Gjo Haven.

For mental health specialist John Vander Velde, telehealth makes a huge difference in dealing with his patients. His sessions with patients from communities without telehealth are done over the phone.

"It's a lot better, you can see the person," says Vander Velde. "You can see the facial expressions and that's very important. Sometimes people don't answer with language but with facial expressions."

The Nunavut government took over telehealth from the government of the Northwest Territories two years ago and has steadily improved the program.

It costs $20,000 a month in line charges to run telehealth, but according to health officials it pays for itself in the money saved through less patient travel.

Last year the GN paid $20 million in patient travel expenses.

"The possibilities are endless with this program," says Tina Mackinnon, telehealth co-ordinator.

Through telehealth doctors in Iqaluit can examine skin rashes on a patient in Pond Inlet, hear the heart beat of a patient in Cape Dorset, a new mother from one of those communities can converse with her family from Iqaluit.

Vander Velde spends five to six hours a week on telehealth dealing with patients.

"It's like I'm sitting face to face, I forget the system is there and it's just me and the client," says Vander Velde.

"Imagine a suicidal paient," says Vander Velde, "a phone won't do."