HAY RIVER - A Hay River woman is upset with the GNWT's medical travel system after she was denied assistance to see a specialist in Edmonton - something she has been doing once every year or two for the past nine years.

An MS patient from Hay River will no longer be reimbursed for medical travel to Edmonton to see her long-time specialist. Instead, Helene Maher will have to travel to Yellowknife to see an unfamiliar doctor and she says the waiting list is a year long. - NNSL file photo

"This is the first time it's been denied," said Helene Maher, who has multiple sclerosis (MS).

She has been seeing the same MS specialist since 2001, and has an appointment for Oct. 12.

However, she was told Oct. 6 the territorial government would not support her travel to see a neurologist outside the NWT, as opposed to seeing a visiting specialist in Yellowknife.

"It's not like I want to go to New York and see the best specialist, or go to Toronto," Maher said. "I just want to go to Edmonton and see the doctor who's been treating me for the last nine years."

Plus, she was told she would have to be on a waiting list for up to a year to see a specialist in Yellowknife.

Since she has not seen the specialist in Edmonton for two years, switching to a specialist in Yellowknife would mean up to three years between visits.

"I'm furious that they would play with my quality of life and that they think that I can sit around and wait for a year while this disease eats away at me," she said.

She is also concerned other MS patients may be in the same situation.

A neurologist in Yellowknife would not be an MS specialist like her doctor in Edmonton and she might not even see the same one from year to year, Maher said. "I have a progressive, degenerative disease that isn't going to go away and, hopefully, if I can prolong the degeneration, that's what I want to do."

She explained it is important for an MS patient to see the same specialist, who can track if the disease is progressing or in remission.

Plus, she said a multiple sclerosis patient sometimes requires an MRI.

"Yellowknife doesn't do MRIs, so they're going to send me to Yellowknife to see a neurologist who doesn't specialize in MS and who can't give me the MRIs, and then they're going to have to turn around and send me to Edmonton anyway for an MRI," she said. "So they're actually going to have to do more and spend more money. It doesn't make sense."

Maher still plans to travel to Edmonton for her scheduled appointment. "I'll pay for that myself. I don't care."

She said the issue is not about money.

"It's the quality of care and the quality of your life," said the 42-year-old mother of two teenaged children.

Her Edmonton specialist feels her disease is in remission, she said. "But that could change. It could come back tomorrow."

Maher - a GNWT employee who works as an administrative assistant with the NWT Liquor Licensing Board - believes her trip to the Edmonton specialist was denied assistance because of financial reasons.

"You just hear so much about the government cutting back and cutting back, and saving, and healthcare," she said. "So I wasn't totally shocked."

She drives to see the Edmonton specialist and the trip costs $700 to $800.

Damien Healy, the communications manager with the Department of Health and Social Services, did not know the specifics of Maher's case, but wouldn't talk about it in any event.

In general, he said, "If we have the ability to treat residents of the Northwest Territories closer to home with specialists in the Northwest Territories, we will send them there."

That is obviously more cost effective and it makes good business sense to keep people closer to home, he said.

"We're confident that the quality of specialist treatment in the territories is as good as the rest of Canada," he added.

Healy said it's not really up to the client to pick and choose who they see.

The existing system is good and efficient for everybody, he said. "If we had everybody picking where they wanted, we'd have somebody saying they want to go to Amsterdam to see a specialist. We couldn't get into that business."

Healy said the GNWT is looking to review the medical travel system and hopes to have a report by February.

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