by Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 14/98) - Territorial health cutbacks are hindering attempts to lure nurses north, but Yellowknife is faring better than other areas, said Carol Anderson, Stanton Hospital director of patient care.

"We're doing quite well in Yellowknife," she said in an interview this week.

"But we're always concerned with southern opportunities opening up."

Anderson said the territorial government has deterred nurses from staying or moving to the North with cutbacks to health-care of 6.25 per cent last year.

The situation in some areas has become crippling when coupled with cuts to vacation and travel allowances initiated at the same time.

Nurses used to receive the equivalent of one or two trips to Edmonton for each of their family members. Now, there is an allowance of $1,750 for those in Yellowknife and higher in outlying areas, but it is far less than what nurses are used to.

And the problem was highlighted by the abrupt resignation by the Keewatin's medical director, who cited the region's nursing shortage.

"Yellowknife generally tends to be easier to recruit to than outlying communities," agreed Karen Hilliard, executive director of the registered nurses association.

Hilliard said the association is in the process of surveying nurses for feedback on problems and potential solutions to job satisfaction to keep quality nurses.

"The workload is higher here (in Yellowknife compared with Edmonton)" Hilliard said. "And nurses have an ever-increasing number of patients while they are on call all of the time with no trips."

Cuts to Northern housing subsidies may also keep good nurses south, she said, touching on the cuts which Health Minister Kelvin Ng admitted contribute to the problem.

"I wouldn't say it's the health-care cuts. Part of the problem is changes to government housing," Ng said. "We've been having a difficult time with respect to the housing issue."

Ng said the federal government has maintained its generous housing subsidy, while the GNWT has been forced to scale back housing allowances and eliminate the vacation travel allowance to cut its deficit over the past two years.

"We do recognize that our nurse-practitioners are the backbone of the health-care system," Ng said, stressing that he has tried to focus health-care cuts on the administrative side and not with the nurses in program delivery.

Ng added that Yellowknife and the rest of the NWT is now facing competition from the provinces for nurse-practitioners, who used to work almost exclusively in the North.