SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The department of Health and Social Services is reviewing its medical travel policies, trying to find a way to cut back on what remains one of its most expensive services.

Paddy Meade: Deputy health minister says the high cost of transporting people from across the NWT to Yellowknife's Stanton Territorial Hospital is largely to blame for that hospital's $7 million deficit. - NNSL file photo

The GNWT spends more than $20 million each year on patients' medical travel expenses – the third highest expenditure in the department's $340 million budget.

Deputy health minister Paddy Meade said the high cost of transporting people from across the NWT to Yellowknife's Stanton Territorial Hospital is largely to blame for that hospital's $7 million deficit. But unlike some regional health authorities that had a surplus last year, the Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services Authority is also in the red behind Stanton with a $3 million deficit.

"The Beaufort also has one of the more expensive areas because of the number of communities they have and the cost of getting staff in and patients in and out. They provide mobile teams of physicians and other specialists to those communities so it drives the Beaufort's cost," said Meade, who is also public administrator for the Beaufort Delta authority.

But she said it's "a system issue and not one authority over another."

"The funding hasn't been adjusted since 1997/98, but also the authorities, in particular Beaufort and Stanton, are really drilling down on how they can find efficiencies and manage their budgets," Meade said, explaining the department is relying more heavily on nurse practitioners, teleconferencing and NWT specialists for patient care to combat medical travel costs from communities, particularly in the Delta.

The department spends more money only on hospital operations and physician salaries.

"People have to get used to not always seeing a doctor. The doctor is part of a team. You'll be dealing a lot more with the use of technology so teleconferencing and dealing in groups," Meade said.

That also means fewer patient trips to see southern specialists – a departmental change that has come under fire from chronic disease sufferers who are now being told they don't have coverage to visit the same specialist they've been seeing for years, in some cases.

"The system in southern jurisdictions is really plugged and we will never have the type of specialists that they have in Alberta or B.C. but we have to use those resources in a way that it's the right service provider at the right time," Meade said.

"We're always going to rely on those jurisdictions and we're very lucky that they accommodate us the way they do. But they're full and they need to do a hand-off faster. So we know they're going to be moving their patients out faster and back to us. But when you've seen a specialist, it doesn’t mean you have to go back to the same specialist down in Edmonton, for example. Our specialists may be able to pick up the case."

She emphasized the department is also trying to crack down on system abuses such as missed appointments and put some of the responsibility for the territory's overloaded health care system back on patients.

"People have to realize that the health system can't fix you if you've not taken care and had a good, healthy lifestyle," Meade said. "How do we make better use of the resources we have? The system has to look at that, but so does the population."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.