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KO Telehealth is pleased to announce that the program is reaching all time highs for clinical, educational and training events...

October saw clinical events hitting over 100 for the second time in 2005 with November seeing the highest results yet. November consisted of 111 clinical events and 88 public health and wellness education events. Please click to review the detailed utilization statistics 'KOTH Utilization Statistics'.

The record setting clinical events utilization is the direct result of KO Telehealth's Community Telehealth Coordinators (CTCs)facilitating scheduled events from 8:00-4:30. Emergency after hours support is also provided by the CTCs, as required.

In order for the community telehealth programs to manage the available bandwidth for the video conferencing needs of the communities, full time coordinators are required to ensure the doctors can see patients in their home communities. This dedication towards the improvement and enhancement to health care services in the communities is the direct result of the community members acceptance to incorporate new technologies into their local health integration initiatives.

These locally owned and operated telehealth programs need to be sustained with the reinvestment of savings into local priorities. Local priorities ranging from educating and training community members into certified telehealth coordinators to ensure community human resource development.

Please visit the KO Telehealth Website for up-to-date news and information surrounding the program.

The upcoming federal election and the platforms of the different parties highlights the huge differences between people who are living comfortably in urban centres and those who are struggling in remote and rural communities. Very little discussion is being reported in the urban media that addresses the different priorities and needs of the people living in small communities across Canada. Clean water, adequate housing, fire protection, pollution, unemployment, forestry, resource management, economic and social program, education and health services as they relate to rural Canada seem to be non-issues to the media as they write about the different issues and statements being made by the party members and their leaders.

These differences are highlighted by yesterday's report that the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples' National Chief Dwight Dorey and National Vice-Chief Patrick Brazeau endorsed the Conservative party after meeting with Jim Prentice to discuss the Conservative Party’s policies on Aboriginal affairs. The Congress represents Aboriginal peoples living mainly in urban areas across Canada.

Meanwhile, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine said he's not satisfied by recent comments by Harper that the party supports the principles of the Kelowna native deal, but not the final agreement and dollar amount. "Any suggestion that one supports the objectives and the targets but not the approximately $5 billion allocated to these targets is of great concern to us because we won't be able to meet the targets without money,'' he said.

Other interest groups are recognizing the importance of some new presentations and the effect they will have on rural Canada.

• The Canadian Climate Coalition complained that the Tories were the only party that refused to respond to a questionnaire on the Kyoto Protocol, and accused Harper of moving Canada "into the same camp as U.S. President George W. Bush.''
• The Council of Canadians expressed concern about recent comments by Conservative MP James Lunney favouring bulk exports of Canadian water, and called on Harper to clarify his position on the issue.
• Sixty-six economists signed a joint statement warning that the tax breaks being offered by the major parties would leave a huge deficit in social services and hurt the poor. They took special aim at the Conservative proposal to eliminate taxes on reinvested capital gains, saying it would "deliver very large tax savings to a tiny group of high-income Canadians.''

It is important that EVERYONE in remote and rural communities across Canada gets out to vote on January 23. Please help encourage your neighbours, your friends, your co-workers, your family to vote next Monday!

EVERY VOTE COUNTS!

NAN Chiefs gather this week in Thunder Bay to discuss treaty issues...

On Tuesday, the NAN Chiefs are hearing a series of presentations from experts in the treaty process... The remaining two days will see the leaders break out into small discussion groups to provide NAN with community perspectives on the ongoing negotiations with Canada on a variety of bilateral issues... KO is well represented with leaders from Fort Severn, Keewaywin, North Spirit, McDowell Lake, Deer Lake and Poplar Hill in attendance...

For more information about this workshop, click here to see KNews story