In February 2024, patients at the Whitehorse General Hospital learned they could potentially expect to get assessed and cared for in makeshift spaces and by emergency medical services workers working inside the hospital as the hospital coped with being “very busy.”
Two long-term care homes effectively became overflow hospital space as needed after a late-afternoon decision by cabinet on Feb. 8, the same day extraordinary steps were taken to address an abnormally busy emergency room and inpatient units at the Whitehorse General Hospital.
In spring 2024, the Yukon government called in the Canadian military.
So now, Yukoners can also expect to see and be seen by military health-care professionals deployed to work and train in the Yukon’s health system — something the territorial health minister says isn’t happening anywhere else in Canada.
Undeployed military nurses, doctors and x-ray technologists have been filling some vacancies in Yukon hospitals.
During the question period in the Yukon legislature on April 15, Yukon Party health critic Brad Cathers asked the minister to admit that calling in the military is a “clear sign that our health-care system is in a state of emergency.”
Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee defended the move as an opportunity for those undeployed military health workers to maintain and build on their knowledge and skills between deployments.
Health leaders are consistently pointing to a global, national and local shortage of health-care workers. Bringing in the military – and having the federal Department of National Defence pay for it – is being poised as an innovative approach.
While the government has managed to keep its community health centres open for the most part, thanks to vacancy rates that were down to 19 per cent in community nursing, doctors have been ringing the alarm bells.
Earlier in 2024, the Yukon’s resident orthopedic surgeons announced they weren’t taking new patients for elective orthopedic surgeries because there was no new money or support for the program.
Surgeons warned of late cancellations.
A physician called out Yukon authorities for making factually incorrect claims about adding hospital operating room hours in September.
Former Yukon Medical Association president Dr. Alex Kmet pleaded for territorial political party leaders to depoliticize the health issue amid what he called a “crisis.”
Opposition parties cried foul over a single line in a request for proposals to re-examine the Yukon’s health system in the long term. They took that line to mean that the governing Liberals were considering privatizing the health-care system – something the Yukon Party and Yukon NDP came out against.
Premier Ranj Pillai reassured the opposition that the Yukon government won’t privatize the health-care system, but he’s not opposed to looking at the option of public-private partnerships (also known as P3) for the building of hospital and health-care infrastructure.
The Yukon is moving ahead with a health authority after the Liberals and NDP voted together to pass the health authority law.
Contact Dana Hatherly at dana.hatherly@yukon-news.com