Friday, November 22, 2024
11/22/2024
The Village of Aniak is a federally-recognized tribe located on the Kuskokwim River in western Alaska, 317 miles west of Anchorage. Aniak is a remote community accessible by plane year- round and boat when the Kuskokwim River is free of ice. No roads connect Aniak with any other community but in the winter, when the Kuskokwim River freezes solid enough, the river is marked and plowed by tribes along the river into an ice road that can reach up to 200 miles, weather permitting. The population of Aniak is 485.Aniak is a service and transportation hub for the surrounding region. Health care is extremely limited. The Aniak Subregional Clinic serves the remote villages of Lower Kalskag (26 air miles away), Upper Kalskag (27 air miles away), Chuathbaluk (9 miles away), Napaimute (20 air mile miles), Crooked Creek (50 air miles away), Red Devil (75 air miles away), Stony River (98 air miles away), and Sleetmute (78 air miles away); all accessible only by small plane. People travel to Aniak constantly for healthcare. For this reason, it is not possible to close our community or effectively limit the number of people as most people coming to Aniak are coming for health services at the Subregional clinic or to catch a flight to Bethel to the Regional Hospital. The clinic can only triage and provide basic services. For most services, patients must then travel 100 miles by air from Aniak to Bethel, the regional hub, where the Indian Health Service funded Regional Hospital is run by the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC). The YKHC Regional Hospital in Bethel can provide more services but is still mostly triage as the hospital cannot perform surgery and has limited services. For many villages, there is not a round-trip flight in one day to Aniak; for example, the small plane carrying mail and supplies and up to 5 passengers flies once a day to Chuathbaluk so a trip from Chuathbaluk to Aniak to the clinic involves staying overnight. Additionally, one of the only air services to fly to these communities, Ravn Air, has filed for bankruptcy because of COVID 19 and this has many consequences, one being that people can be stranded in Aniak for longer periods of time. We are requesting funding to establish emergency operations center, surge staffing, procurement of supplies and equipment, tests. training employees to do testing,telehealth equipment cell phone/internet, computer/printer/labels, PPE’s for employees and other tasks and supplies to be determined
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
