Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 02/98) - It finally looks like a real regional health centre is almost a reality for the Keewatin.

It won't be as fancy as the Health Sciences Hospital in Winnipeg, says Rose Oolooyuk, chairman of the Keewatin Regional Health Board. But it will be a hospital.

The Minister of Health and Social Services Kelvin Ng, in a teleconference with the health board members Nov. 23, said the $12-million facility is a big step forward.

"The regional health board and the Department of Health agreed in principal to this functional plan," Ng said. "It's something affordable from a government perspective and something workable from a health perspective."

For Oolooyuk and Rosemary Brown, director of planning for the health board, the announcement culminates nearly 25 years of hard work.

Keewatin patients have been flying south ever since the U.S. Air Force pulled out of Churchill, leaving a perfectly good hospital. Rather than build a facility in the Keewatin, the federal

government thought flying patients down for treatment would be the answer.

"Churchill has served us well, but this will bring health-care services a little closer to home," said Brown.

The new eight-bed facility with three more birthing beds could be open as early as 2001.

"The Government of the Northwest Territories approved the plan on behalf of the

Nunavut government. But the Nunavut government will still have to sign the lease," Oolooyuk said.

The next step is for the board chairman to write to the Interim Commissioner's Office asking for a signature to get things in the works. The design must be finished, the lot readied, building supplies ordered and barged up before the footings are poured.

The new building, which will be behind the Nunavut College complex, will have a bigger and better lab, a morgue, specialty clinics, four doctors offices, minor operating room, health records, housekeeping, family kitchenettes, eight medical beds, two emergency room beds and three birthing rooms.

"It's not just a building, it's services for the people," Brown said.

Much thought and planning have already gone into the blueprints. The hospital will be as culturally welcoming as possible Brown said. The planners have consulted with community members, staff and elders.

The GNWT and the health board are partnered with Sakku Investments as part of a private/public partnership. Sakku will design, build, own and operate the building, then lease it back to the health board.

Phase 2 of the regional health plan will see social services offices, public health, regional physiotherapy and homecare all housed in the old nursing station when the budget allows, Brown said.

"It won't be right away but we must have a plan. Physical services and wellness under one roof," she said.

A boarding home is also on the drawing board.

Little by little the regional health centre started expanding its facilities, taking a little more ownership for health care over the years. After 10 years of lobbying and research, the health facility in Rankin Inlet got a birthing centre in 1992. Then the lab was upgraded.

When the new laboratory is up and running, all lab work, including cultures will be done in the Keewatin.

With a shortage of nurses in the North, staffing the hospital may pose a problem. The minister has a retention and recruitment plan in the works to encourage health careers in the North with a nursing school possibly in Nunavut. The government is also working on a territorial relief board for social workers and nurses to hopefully alleviate stressed-out workers. Creative perk packages are also being looked at.

Pretty soon, if all goes according to plan, the sterilizer that is currently housed in a kitchenette for lack of space, will have a place of its own.