Rankin Inlet medical boarding home ‘not feasible right now,’ says health minister

Passengers are stuck at airport when flights are cancelled or delayed, Kivalliq MLAs say

Citing a low volume of medical travellers passing through Rankin Inlet, Health Minister Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster has put the idea of opening a medical boarding home there to bed.

For now, at least.

“Health officials conducted a preliminary review and found that the average number of clients overnighting in Rankin was too low to make a boarding home feasible,” Brewster said in the legislature Tuesday, responding to questions from Alexander Sammurtok, the MLA for Rankin Inlet North-Chesterfield Inlet.

The average number, Brewster said, is three travellers per night.

“Though it is not feasible right now, there is work being done to see what we can do to better support medical travellers who are passing through Rankin Inlet and who do get laid over,” she said.

Sammurtok has long advocated for a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet to accommodate Kivalliq travellers experiencing lengthy layovers and weather delays on their way to and from medical appointments.

“I wish the minister or your executive would be in Rankin Inlet when there actually are patients waiting in the airport due to weather or cancellation of a flight,” Sammurtok said in the chamber.

Sammurtok isn’t alone in his calls for a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet.

At their recent regional meeting, mayors representing seven Kivalliq communities adopted a motion calling on the government to build a medical boarding home in Rankin Inlet.

A boarding home would “meet the health-care accommodation needs of medical clients throughout the Kivalliq Region,” said the resolution, which was sent to Premier John Main on March 4.

In the legislature Tuesday, Aivilik MLA Hannah Angootealuk said travellers from Coral Harbour and Naujaat — the two communities she represents — often find themselves waiting in the Rankin Inlet airport for “six hours to 12 hours” for their next flight.

Brewster said the Department of Health reserves 10 hotel rooms with two beds in each to accommodate medical travellers staying in Rankin Inlet.

She encouraged people who encounter delays to contact the department’s medical travel team.

“They can always reach out to the medical travel staff, who will come and support those travellers whether it’s with food or blankets, or helping them to get a day room so that they can have a safe and warm place to stay during their layover,” Brewster said.