Inuvik (Jan 28/05) - After being diagnosed with an inguinal hernia in April 2004, Inuvik resident Dianne Strube is still waiting for surgery to correct the problem.

"People shouldn't have to wait this long," said Strube, who wrote a letter outlining her concerns and forwarded it to the Drum, the Inuvik Health and Social Services Board and Boot Lake MLA Floyd Roland.

In the letter, Strube writes that she has been suffering with her condition for nine months, "because someone at Stanton Territorial Hospital can't spare 30 minutes for an outpatient procedure requiring only local anaesthesia."

According to Heather Chang, patient representative and quality and risk management co-ordinator at Stanton Territorial Hospital, surgeries are broken into two categories - elective or non-urgent and emergency.

Hernia surgery of this type is classed as elective and wait times are generally in the nine-month range.

As to the issue of perceived preferential treatment for Yellowknife patients, Chang pointed out that when surgery cancellations come up, it is more likely that somebody living in Yellowknife will be contacted.

"Our goal is to get the wait list down, not to give priority (to a particular group)," she said.

As well, Chang noted that Stanton is operating with a full complement of three surgeons, which will allow regular visits to communities to perform surgeries. On March 7, a surgeon from Stanton Hospital will be in Inuvik.