SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Rosemarie Kuptana, who attended residential school with Papik, said she was horrified to learn how he died. "Did they just assume that he was drunk?," she asked. "Was this a dereliction of duty along with racism?"
Health Minister Glen Abernethy took questions in the legislative assembly Feb. 28 on a report released the day previous into the death of Hugh Papik. The Aklavik man was initially diagnosed as being drunk. - NNSL file photo
Hugh Papik died after suffering a stroke in Aklavik last summer. |
On Aug. 16 Health Minister Glen Abernethy called for a critical incident investigation. On Feb. 28 in the legislative assembly, Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green asked Health Minister Glen Abernethy about recommendations contained in the report, released the previous day. Below is Abernethy's response to the, edited for length and clarity.)
"Mr. Speaker, as a result of the critical incident investigation, 16 recommendations were provided to me. Of those recommendations, two of them are specific to Aklavik; the remainder are more systemic or system-based.
"The two recommendations that do reference Aklavik specifically in my mind also are for the whole territory, not just for Aklavik but clearly we have some work to do in the Northwest Territories to improve care for all residents.
"There are two recommendations that were specific to the community, and, as I said, I feel that those recommendations, although they reference the community, are still a territorial recommendation. The first one, recommendation number three, was to review first responder training in Aklavik.
"We have provided training around the Northwest Territories. Now, we are just reviewing. The last round was delivered in Aklavik so that we could deliver it. We are looking at enhancing and ensuring that training gets out to all communities in the Northwest Territories.
"We are currently looking at a pilot study in Tsiigehtchic to provide this type of services on a more fulsome basis. The second recommendation was the medical and transport and ambulance recommendation.
"We are not moving forward with a territorial ambulance services. We aren't going to be putting an ambulance in Aklavik.
"I did make a commitment when I met with leadership in the community, as well as the residents, that we would work with the community to find some solutions that work for the community. In the interim, we are looking at the stretchers and other equipment that we have in our health centre to make sure that it is the best equipment and the most suitable equipment for the community. We are doing that work right now.
"The other recommendation we are not moving forward is the creation of a stroke centre here in Yellowknife. There is work we are doing on those, just not as outlined in the recommendations. Mr. Speaker, these are important recommendations. Some of them, I think, are foundational. We have made commitments to move on all of them, but I don't have timelines.
"We have implemented and put in place quality assurance mechanisms within the Health and Social Services system. This is an office of individuals that can be engaged by residents of the Northwest Territories who have concerns of the health care or the social services provided.
"What has become clear, both with my meeting with the family on Friday and my meeting with leadership in the community, is that, although these positions exist, people don't know that they exist.
"People do not know that this mechanism is available to them. I made a commitment to the leadership, to the family, and I am making a commitment here to the Members to do more to get that information out to the public."
