Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Baker Lake (May 22/02) - Health Minister Ed Picco says steps have been taken to ensure medical passengers are no longer stranded at the airport in Rankin Inlet.

Responding to comments made by Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean in the legislature during the current session, Picco said three measures were put in place to ensure the problem was solved.

McLean first raised the issue after Baker Lake residents came forward with complaints about being stranded in Rankin Inlet without accommodation during medical travel.

McLean said over the last few years, bad weather had grounded medical passengers at the airport in Rankin Inlet. Upon their arrival, the patients -- many of whom are unilingual Inuit -- had nowhere to stay and no food to eat.

"There's no co-ordinated effort to ensure people are taken care of," said McLean, from his office in the legislative assembly in Iqaluit. "People have to run around and find relatives and taxi money and money for food," he said.

"It's a difficult experience for my constituents and I want to put an end to it now."

McLean said the government should clearly post the telephone number of a Department of Health employee whose job it is to look after patients and their accommodation needs when stranded.

Picco said patients travelling in the Kivalliq region are now provided with a sheet of Inuktitut and English instructions about what to do for accommodations if they're waylaid in Rankin Inlet.

Second, the telephone number for accommodations and assistance is clearly posted at the airport and on the sheet of instructions. And last, the telephone system is being set up so that calls will be answered or forwarded to a 24-hour monitoring system.

"We want to make any medical travel as convenient as possible," said Picco.

Basil Tiktaalaaq, a member of the health committee in Baker Lake, said he hopes Picco's actions would put an end to the trying times experienced by residents.

"I hope so," said Tiktaalaaq, who explained that he was first made aware of the situation by his mother when she was stranded in Rankin Inlet last month. She had to scramble to find a place to stay at a relative's house late in the evening. Another patient travelling on the same plane had no relatives in Rankin Inlet, but was fortunate enough to be able to stay with Tiktaalaaq's family.

"My mother told me she doesn't want to go to Rankin any more because of what happened," said Tiktaalaaq.

"I talked to McLean and he went to our meeting and he said he'd talk to the minister of health and social services."

McLean also expressed concern about the lack of a proper medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet.

He said the new medical facility planned for the regional centre will increase medical travel tenfold and create further complications without a centre established specifically for patient accommodations.

"When the centre opens, we'll have people from Chesterfield travelling to Rankin, people from Whale Cove, people from Arviat. Where are they going to put these people? There's a chronic housing shortage in Rankin," said McLean.

Picco said his department is looking at the options and considering whether to lease an existing facility or build a new one.