After greater than a 12 months with no dentist, Inuvik is now on observe to welcome a resident dentist by late fall.
Throughout a current council assembly, Mayor Peter Clarkson mentioned one potential dentist is quickly anticipated to go to the Northwest Territories group to discover housing choices.
Inuvik’s solely dental clinic, the Western Arctic Dental Group, has been closed since Might 2024 – although residents have been elevating considerations about rising gaps in service lengthy earlier than that.
With no dentist residing within the city, residents should journey elsewhere – usually to Yellowknife – for dental care. That journey isn’t at all times simple.
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Earlier this 12 months, for instance, the N.W.T. authorities suggested individuals to postpone non-urgent dental visits to Yellowknife, except they’d already secured a spot to remain, resulting from “extraordinarily restricted” lodging within the metropolis.
The GNWT has accused Indigenous Providers Canada – the federal physique answerable for delivering providers, together with well being advantages, to First Nations and Inuit individuals – of underfunding the territory below Ottawa’s Non-Insured Well being Advantages program, inflicting a number of the bother in attracting and retaining dentists.
Final week, Clarkson acknowledged the pressing want for native dental providers, noting the pressure positioned on households who’ve needed to journey lengthy distances for fundamental therapy.
“All these of you who’ve gone out your self by yourself dime, or accompanied children, that’ll be a aid to everybody. Plus it’ll be a aid on attempting to fly out of right here,” he mentioned within the assembly.
“The variety of medical and dental individuals going out from the Beaufort Delta after which different areas exterior of Yellowknife (is) retaining all of the inns in Yellowknife crammed, however the inconvenience for everyone else within the territory is large.”
