Sanikiluaq (July 10/06) - Sanikiluaq’s health centre needs a little treatment of its own.

One of the building’s walls has become structurally unsound, forcing the centre’s three nurses to set up shop at Nuiyak school.

“To be safe we decided the best precaution was to move the staff, who (also) live in the building, out, as well as the health programs,” said Dave Richardson, Nunavut’s assistant deputy minister of Health.

Richardson said soil conditions were the source of the problem, though he couldn’t say exactly how. Engineers were on the scene assessing the building, he said.

The health centre was built in the late 1980s and the soil condition was known at the time, but officials believed the problem was repaired at the time, he said.

“It came as a surprise to us that the structural fault appeared,” Richardson said, adding there was no immediate threat of a collapse.

A nurse who answered the phone at Nuiyak school said she couldn’t answer media questions.

Tish Wilson, director of Health and Social Services for the Kivalliq Region and Sanikiluaq, said the nurses and social worker are staying at the Amaulik Hotel.

“We’re looking for alternative accommodations, but they’re fine (at the hotel) right now,” she said.

Wilson also praised local civil servants and Co-op workers for their help moving files and equipment to the new site.

It isn’t known when the health centre will be safe to inhabit again.