Jason Unrau
Northern News Services
Friday, April 30, 2007

Iqaluit - A new federal program aimed at cutting patient wait times across Canada may add more nurses to Nunavut's health care system but there is no guarantee it will affect patients' wait times for surgeries.

Nunavut health minister Leona Aglukkaq -

Of the five "core" health care areas the Conservative government's Patient Wait Times Guarantee targets - cataract, hip and knee, cardiac and cancer treatment and surgeries and diagnostics - Nunavut has elected to focus the $4.5 million in federal funding on diagnostics.

Nunavut Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who was in Yellowknife recently with her territorial and federal counterparts, said training more nurses and improving remote diagnostic capabilities were priorities.

Nurse practitioners are registered nurses with the ability to prescribe medication. Getting more working in Nunavut, matched with remote diagnostics, could go a long way towards allowing patients to know what ails them without having to fly them to another community.

"This funding will be used to train nurses at the community level so they are able to work in remote health centres," said Aglukkaq. "First, primary contact is with nursing and we're building that capacity."

Last year, five Nunavummiut graduated from nursing school and this year five more are expected to complete the program. Aglukkaq said the goal is to have 29 Nunavummiut nurses in three years.

According to Sheila Laity, a registered nurse with 25 years Northern experience, the intention is good but making good on it will be the challenge.

"As far as getting treatment, permanent nurses in communities is a start," she said.

She said most NWT and Nunavut nurses are "locums," hired guns from the south here for a temporary period.

"Permanent nurses gives you consistency so patients don't have to go back to square one with their (medical) story...(but) I'm not sure where they are going to get them," she said.

Under the deal announced by Federal Health Minister Tony Clement, Nunavut has agreed to establish wait time guarantees for primary health care by March 2010, which will be supported by $4.5 million. Nunavut is also eligible for federal cash from the $400 million in new Canada Health Infoway funding.