Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 23/02) - A new toll-free service will provide Northerners with a line to health-care advice and could ease pressure on emergency rooms and health nurses.

The new service, which is currently in the request for proposal stage, will fulfil a directive outlined in the NWT Health and Social Services 2002-2005 action plan.

The telephone service will operate on the premise that people have the responsibility to maintain their own health.

According to the action plan, past approaches to the provision of health services has created a dependency on health-care providers.

That dependency has created an atmosphere where patients access medical services for unnecessary -- and at times ridiculous -- reasons.

The health line will be designed to give people the tools and the support to try and help themselves by understanding their condition, which may not require immediate medical attention, the plan says.

Sheila Sears, manager of primary community services with GNWT Health and Social Services, said the call centre will be staffed with trained professionals qualified in providing advice and assessment.

She gave as an example, a young mother told by a nurse to give her child Tylenol -- but she can't remember how much -- could call the service.

That would save a call to an on-call nurse or trip to the emergency room. People who are not sure if they need immediate help could also call.

"They can get sense if they need to be seen immediately or if they can wait until tomorrow," said Sears.

If a condition is serious, the call centre can directly link the patient to an emergency service, or, for less serious cases, recommend they see a physician or nurse right away.

"We want to encourage self-care to provide support for our workers and to deter these non-urgent times for when staff is being called for the ridiculous to the non-urgent," said Sears.

She added that at times on-call nurses can get three or four non-urgent calls in the middle of the night and then be woken up at 3 a.m. for something urgent.

The deadline for proposals is October 14 at 3 p.m. The GNWT business incentive policy applies.