SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The demise of the NWT Health Line, discontinued on Friday, is not entirely surprising, says Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins.

"It may have been doomed from the start because it's an impersonal style of service," said Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins.

"I don't know if it creates a sense of comfort as going to the emergency room would."

The Health Line program was cut because not enough people were using the service, according to health officials.

When it was created in 2004, NWT residents could call a 24-hour toll-free number to speak to a registered nurse about their health concerns.

The aim of the health care hotline was to provide health information to residents in remote communities but a majority of the calls were made from Yellowknife.

According to the Department of Health and Social Services, the line received 7,521 calls for health information between April 2009 and March 2010, and 63.9 per cent of those calls were from Yellowknife.

The majority of the calls were related to cold and flu symptoms which spiked in 2009 from September to November because of the H1N1 pandemic.

Other than those three months there wasn't an increase in the use of the hot-line.

Robertson said rather than seeing an increase of people using the phone line the numbers plateaued.

"We didn't see an uptake of these services," said Scott Robertson, the Northwest Territories chief nursing officer.

Hawkins said despite the fact the service was discontinued there was a bigger need for communication.

"I wish they kept us up to date on the overall progress," said Hawkins. "I heard about this through the media."

The GNWT Department of Health and Social Services spent $572,000 during the last fiscal year to operate the phone line, not including administration or advertising costs.

Robertson said the low number of calls the line received reflects that people are satisfied with the care provided by their local health care centres.

"We will continue to evaluate the impact of this decision and look for ways to provide health information to the public," said Robertson.

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