Yukon Medical Association says the territory is in a health-care crisis

The president of the Yukon Medical Association says the territory's current health-care system is broken.

Dr. Alex Kmet says patients aren't receiving the care they need, putting their health — and health-care staff — at risk.

"My colleagues are struggling not to be broken ... People are doing everything they can to shore up the dam, and it is wearing them really, really thin. I personally struggle to know how I want to keep going on when I watch people not get the care that they need to get and when I'm hamstrung by not being able to provide the care that I know I can do."  

Kmet says hospitals have been "in the red" since the beginning of the year, meaning that they have not been able to meet the unusually high level of demand on the system – a problem he says the government should have foreseen. 

Kmet said a report issued five years ago predicted increasing service volumes up to 2032 — but the government, he said, has been too slow in upgrading infrastructure. 

"We are already well beyond what that consulting report recommended saying 10 years from now we would need to be doing. If you look at the population demographics, how many people the territory is growing into and how quickly that population is aging, that's just the very basic math driving the need."

Kmet said politics have been getting in the way of improvement. In an open letter shared Wednesday, he urged party leaders to put aside their political differences and work co-operatively to find solutions. 

"In order to fix the problem that we face, everyone needs to recognize and acknowledge the same problem. And then everyone needs to be committed to ensuring that that problem gets resolved."  

'Solutions are not going to be fast or simple'

Yukon Health Minister, Tracy-Anne McPhee, acknowledged the considerable challenges the territory's health-care system faces but defended the steps the Liberal government has taken to reduce them. 

"Solutions are not going to be fast or simple. They require vision. They require commitments to evolve, and to true transformation. And that's frustrating for people who are waiting for a surgery or an appointment with their doctor, but we know we've been steadfast in this commitment to making sure this is a top priority, absolute top priority, for our government." 

McPhee cited "unprecedented funding" for health-care initiatives, including the implementation of the Health Authority Act, which she said will help keep politics out of health care.

"We are learning from the implementation of health authorities in other places and we have taken those steps to build in — like the Health Authority Act that was just passed in the spring here — so that successive governments may not go backwards, may not change things for political reasons or for other party reasons."

McPhee echoed Kmet on the importance of political parties working together to address the issue — something she says the Liberals are open to. 

McPhee suggested that governments build budgets that increase yearly spending on health care to fund long-term initiatives, like new facilities, so that changes in government do not compromise progress in improving the system. 

"You expect support for those budgets to come from the opposition parties, if they are truly speaking about how they want to make improvements," she said.