Colville Lake (Feb 27/06) - An MLA is demanding a government inquiry into health care for small communities after a sick baby was rushed south for treatment after an apparent misdiagnosis.

Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya raised the matter in the legislative assembly, Thursday.

Colville Lake school closed for a day recently after an infant in the community was medevaced first to Inuvik, then Edmonton for meningitis testing.

Yakeleya said a nurse in Fort Good Hope initially told the child's frantic parents over the phone that the baby was likely just teething, and not to worry. "Twelve hours later the baby is in serious trouble and was finally asked to get the doctor to do a medevac situation," said Yakeleya.

"It's obvious that the health care system in this case has failed."

Colin Eddie, director of health and social services for the Sahtu region, called it an isolated situation.

"It was a single case of bacterial meningitis, which is not contagious at all," said Eddie. "It's caused by bacteria that live in most people's noses and throats."

It only causes problems in rare cases for babies and people with already weakened immune systems, such as someone suffering from AIDS, he said.

Nonetheless, Yakeleya wants the government to launch an inquiry and demanded to know whether the nurse in Fort Good Hope would be disciplined.

"It points to the dangers of our health care system that poses every day for those people who don't have the type of services they have in larger centres in the health care system," said Yakeleya.

Health Minister Michael Miltenberger promised to look into the matter.

"We're making sure first that the patient gets the best care possible and then we're going to look at what happened," said Miltenberger.

"Once that is clear, we'll work back and see what lessons there are to be learned."

There has been no update on the baby's status.