SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Margaret Leishman says her son, Allisdair, is not getting the physiotherapy time he needs at Stanton Territorial Hospital while Bill Burles, a Yellowknife resident with spina bifida, says he has never had a problem accessing physiotherapy services.
Shawna Pound, physiotherapist at Stanton Territorial Hospital, explains how an arm ergometer works. The tool is used to help patients develop and strengthen shoulder range of motion. - Lyndsay Herman/NNSL photo |
Some say the difference is treatment will likely get Burles back to work while Leishman has more severe health issues.
Allisdair, 39, suffers from a serious brain injury as a result of stabbing himself in the chest with a kitchen knife while being admitted into Stanton. Allisdair, who has a history of mental illness, is now mute and has limited mobility as a result of the incident. He's been living in extended-care at Stanton Territorial Hospital since 2009.
Margaret said her son is improving slowly but she believes he would have made a better recovery if he had received more frequent and individualized treatment.
She said the care he received while at the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury in Ponoka, Alta., far surpassed what he has received at Stanton thus far.
"If work was done on my son like it was supposed to be, he would have advanced because of what I see in him," Margaret said. "He even moves his hands and arms now, scratching his head, touching parts of his body, and the iPad that I set up for him ... it gives commands and he is able to work that out."
Wheelchair-bound Burles also accesses physiotherapy through the public system in Yellowknife and said he has always been happy with his physiotherapy sessions whether as an in- or out-patient at Stanton Territorial Hospital.
However, on at least one occasion, a physician encouraged him to say his need for physiotherapy was preventing him from working since it would likely get him a quicker appointment, he said.
"The excuse for the 10 years I've lived here and worked in rehabilitation is that we don't have the capacity to do rehabilitation in the North but there are actually eight therapists based out of Stanton," said Marion Hutton, an occupational therapist and owner of LCP Health. "Seven of them work on out-patients with otherwise well people and one of them works on in-patients."
Before opening LCP Health, Hutton worked as an occupational therapist at Stanton Territorial Hospital and as a seniors and disabilities adviser for the Department of Health and Social Services.
Hutton argues patients with coverage should be sent to the private sector, as is done in many southern provinces, in order to free up public resources for those who need it more.
"We've got the resources here. We've got the talent. We've got the ability. We just have to be better at (delivery)," said Daryl Dolynny, MLA for Range Lake. "Each (health authority) is kind of working independently. Each region is self-governed with their own CEO and health authority. There is nothing that groups them all together and says, 'Hey, you know what? We need to be patient-focused and we're not being patient-focused,' and that's the problem."
Dolynny addressed his concerns with Tom Beaulieu, minister of Health and Social Services, during the last session of the legislative assembly and demanded a territory-wide standard for patient care.
Beaulieu said there were gaps in the system and he would commit to an overhaul, however in a later interview with Yellowknifer, Beaulieu clarified his statement a territory-wide standard for care would not be beneficial since patients are already prioritized based on their medical needs and the care they receive is not restricted by resource availability.
He said priority is given to those who need physiotherapy to get back to work, but those individuals would not take resources away from those who needed it for pain or other important reasons.
Workers injured on the job are categorized as "urgent" on physiotherapy referral forms at Stanton Territorial Hospital.
When asked if the Department of Health and Social Services would encourage a greater use of the private sector, Beaulieu said the choice is available to individuals but it's not something the department is considering because the current wait list is not problematic.
