John Boivin | CBC Online News | Nov. 21
It's not easy providing good health care in all the far-flung communities of the Northwest Territories. While Yellowknife and larger centres have successfully tackled recruitment problems, six communities don't even have a nurse.
The tiny settlement of Wrigley is one of them. And that fact is probably killing Baptiste Betsidea.
Betsidea lives in Willow River, population 11, an hour's drive from Wrigley. He has prostate cancer, and is so sick he seldom rises from bed.
The nearest nurse who could relieve his pain is several hours drive away.
 |
| There is no nurse in Wrigley, and it's a two-hour drive to the nearest staffed nursing station. |
Prostate cancer is usually curable if it's caught soon enough, but the elder wasn't a complainer. When Baptiste finally couldn't stand the pain any longer, he sought medical help.
"He was just like, bloated," recalls his daughter, Betty-Anne. "And that's why they had to send him out.
Baptiste made three hard trips to Edmonton, and he's had enough travel. While there's good long-term care in Fort Simpson, two hours away, this is the life he knows.
"He'll probably spend most of his time here - well, all his life here. He doesn't want to go anywhere," she says. "This is where he belongs."
With no nurse in the community, Betty-Anne gave up her job to take care of her father.
 |
| Betty-Anne Betsidea takes care of her father Baptiste, who is dying of cancer in Willow River. |
Still, it's a lot of work with no running water, and just a generator for electricity. And Betty-Anne gets no financial help for providing home care. Life would be much easier if there was a nurse in Wrigley.
"But there's been no nurse in Wrigley's health centre for almost six years," she says.
Crisis eases in some places
A nursing station without a nurse used to be a more common problem throughout the Northwest Territories.
Over the past four years, every health authority has been actively looking for doctors or nurses.
 |
| "It's my turn to take care of him and the elders." Betty-Anne Betsidea |
But things are looking up: in Yellowknife, all of the 29 positions for family doctors will be filled by April. Hay River and Inuvik are close to recruiting the doctors they need, according to the health department.
As of the end of September, Stanton hospital in Yellowknife only needed eight nurses. However, the Inuvik region is still searching for about 13.
Sharilyn Alexander, the head of human resources with the Department of Health and Social Services, says the territorial government has studied how to recruit and keep health professionals here, and has made some changes.
Alexander says nurses and doctors wanted better contracts, and opportunities to improve their skills.
The government and health authorities gave them both.
 |
| "How we actually provide services for our people is very important" – Chief Tim Lennie |
The department of health also released an action plan in 2002, looking at ways to improve the health system. Many of those improvements were aimed at supporting and keeping staff.
But things haven't changed much for the people of Wrigley. They are served by a doctor one day a month, and a nurse for two or three days. People here see the lack of health care as their single biggest risk, and a threat to the health of the community.
"Right now we have young families, children, elders, all moving out of the community," says Tim Lennie, chief of the Pedzeh K'i First Nation in Wrigley.
"How we actually provide services for our people is very important, because if we don't provide them, everybody is moving out."
