Health staff gave up long weekend plans to keep Yellowknife ER open, official says

The public administrator of the N.W.T. Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) says Yellowknife's emergency department will remain open over long weekend because health-care workers adjusted their vacation plans. 

The acknowledgement came during a public briefing for a legislative committee meeting on Friday. It was a chance for MLAs to question the health minister and Dan Florizone, the NTHSSA public administrator, on an action plan for the territory's beleaguered health-care system.  

Northwest Territories doctors have been vocal in recent weeks about staffing challenges so severe they're not sure how Stanton Territorial Hospital's emergency room will function.

Florizone told MLAs at Friday's meeting that the emergency room will be staffed this weekend "because of the goodwill of the emergency room doctors and the staff who have cancelled their plans and adjusted. 

"I can tell you that this summer and this period is worse than we've ever experienced… but we're going to work really hard, that everyday we get a bit better."

'Those doors will never close'

The meeting started with a presentation from Florizone about how he planned to improve the territory's health-care system. It was followed by questions from MLAs.

Yellowknife MLA Julian Morse asked whether Florizone had listened to another committee meeting held late last month with members of the N.W.T. Medical Association, where physicians described the dire situation facing the territory. 

Florizone said he was surprised by the comments as he says NTHSSA officials have been meeting regularly with the N.W.T. Medical Association and are working on shared priorities. 

Health Minister Lesa Semmler also pushed back on the suggestion that the emergency department might close because of staffing.

"Statements like that put the fear in our residents," she said. 

"Those doors will never be closed and there will be support and there are many contingency plans to do that."  

Incredible sacrifices amid systemic failures, MLA says

Later in the briefing on Friday, MLA Shauna Morgan again raised the subject of staffing in the Stanton emergency room and said the physicians keeping it open are already being overworked.

"Ever since COVID, we all like to talk about how health-care workers are heroes and they do amazing work and the sacrifices they make," she said.  

"We have frontline workers who are working and making incredible sacrifices despite the systemic failures around them."

Morgan says she understands that the health department and NTHSSA don't want to alarm the public, but she said pushing overworked health-care workers to the breaking point isn't a viable solution. 

"What I want to see in these strategies and in the actions being taken, first and foremost, is that we stop assuming that staff will always take the extra load, they'll take those extra shifts, they'll not take these vacations," Morgan said.

It was Morgan's comments that prompted Florizone to acknowledge the workers keeping the emergency room open over the long weekend. 

52 small improvements

Florizone also talked about his role as public administrator and what he and his team were working toward accomplishing.  

He told MLAs that his role as public administrator is temporary and once changes are enacted he will leave the position and a new governance structure will be established. 

He also spoke about a trip he took to Jean Marie River First Nation to see the health facility there. He described it as an eye-opening visit and said his priority is to ensure people in communities like Jean Marie River can access better health care, closer to home. 

Florizone said they are also taking suggestions from frontline staff and other organizations, like the medical association, about improving the system. 

He said the plan will be to listen to a suggestion for a small improvement and incorporate it to see how it works. Florizone says the goal is to make 52 small improvements in 52 weeks.