Yellowknife MLAs release healthcare survey findings

The NWT’s health minister says public complaints about the healthcare system are not falling “on deaf ears,” despite the concerns of two Yellowknife MLAs.

Kieron Testart and Robert Hawkins hosted a healthcare town hall in Yellowknife in August and created an online survey calling on residents to share their healthcare experiences.

On Wednesday, they tabled a report on the survey and shared some of its findings in the legislature.

“If it wasn’t clear, our healthcare system is on life support,” Testart said, claiming the NWT government is prioritizing locum, temporary and agency healthcare workers over full-time staff.

“The GNWT, for some reason, has optimized healthcare to be utterly dependent on a fly-in culture that is making healthcare outcomes worse and staff retention next to impossible.”

More than half of respondents dissatisfied

Testart and Hawkins’ report indicates that of the 289 survey respondents – nearly 80 percent of whom live in Yellowknife – more than 57 percent found it “difficult” or “very difficult” to access healthcare services in their community.

More than 70 percent of respondents said it took more than a week to get an appointment and 52 percent said they were either “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with their overall healthcare experience.

In the comments section, respondents said areas where the territory’s healthcare system could improve include more staff, cultural competency, easier access to medical records, electronic booking and shorter wait times.

Hawkins said people want to be heard and share their problems but they also want to be part of the solution. Testart said workers are looking for “bold action” from the territorial government.

Health minister Lesa Semmler acknowledged the NWT’s healthcare system is facing challenges like the recruitment and retention of staff. She said Stanton Territorial Hospital is “at the brink” and her department and the health authority are working to address the territory-wide issue.

“I am committed to working within our structures. I am committed to … looking at my legislation to see the authorities that I have over the healthcare system and working with the rest of the members in this House,” she said.

Semmler chalked up some of the complaints to “wrinkles” in the move of Yellowknife primary care services to the Łıwegǫ̀atì building and changes to the city’s lab services. She said work is under way to address difficulties calling to make appointments and she promised to follow up with the health authority about appointment wait times.

‘It is an issue across Canada’

Semmler said she, the deputy minister and management at Stanton Territorial Hospital held a town hall of their own with hospital staff and plan to meet with healthcare workers throughout the territory.

She committed to reviewing a leave policy, addressing other concerns and following up with workers.

“There is a sense of frustration and I acknowledge that,” she said.

When it comes to staffing, Semmler said the territory is not prioritizing locum or agency nurses and cannot bargain outside the existing collective agreement. She said the health authority interviews healthcare professionals that leave the territory and is using that data to improve staff retention.

“It is an issue across Canada. We are struggling to find and retain healthcare providers,” she said, adding it’s a priority issue that will be discussed at a Canada-wide health ministers’ meeting.

New unit exploring ‘core’ health and social services

Also on Wednesday, Semmler joined Premier RJ Simpson at a public briefing on healthcare sustainability and accountability.

She said the territory’s health and social services system is facing significant financial challenges, with service delivery costs exceeding funding.

To address the issue, the premier said he recently created a healthcare system sustainability unit within the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs. That unit is tasked with better understanding what the territory’s “core” health and social services are and examining budget oversight.

“My expectation is that the work of the unit, once completed, will yield financial benefits for the NWT,” he said, adding the territory has secured federal dollars – to the tune of approximately $2 million annually – to fund the unit until the end of March 2028.

Deputy minister Jo-Anne Cecchetto said health and social services deficits date back well over 20 years. As of March 31, the accumulated health and social services system deficit is $265 million with a projected $93-million deficit for 2024-25.

Things that have “distracted” the territory from addressing the root causes of that deficit, she said, include the formation of the NWT health authority in 2016, the opening of the new Stanton Territorial Hospital in 2019, the Covid-19 pandemic, and wildfires and floods.

Cecchetto added that the struggle to recruit and retain staff and the use of agency nurses have contributed to the “ever-changing fiscal reality” of health and social services.

“I’ve had the privilege of working in this jurisdiction for 35 years as a clinician,” she said, “and I have not experienced the degree of the recruitment challenges that we have faced in this country as we do today.”

Correction: October 27, 9:48 MT. This story initially stated the new healthcare system sustainability unit would receive $10 million in federal funding annually. In fact, the unit will receive around $2 million annually over four years from the Territorial Health Investment Fund. The territory receives a total of $10 million annually from the federal government through that fund.

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