Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jan 18/99) - An official working for the Baffin regional health and social services board reported that the Baffin Regional Hospital had survived the Christmas season quite well despite a serious nursing shortage.

"The bottom line is if we thought we were going to have a crisis, it didn't materialize and the situation has improved," said Dennis Patterson, the chair of the regional board.

He said that while management and employees of the hospital had both been prepared to handle events with a shortage of personnel, things went very smoothly during the holidays and the season was far less busy than expected.

"It turns out that maybe we were more alarmist than we needed to be. We wanted the general public to understand that we were concerned about capacity. Fortunately it was really a much quieter Christmas than normal," said Patterson.

He explained that other than the usual services that would ordinarily be devolved to Ottawa or Yellowknife, the Iqaluit-based, health-care facility was able to carry out all of its own functions.

Patterson said that management was continuing to concentrate their efforts on recruiting and retaining long-term, health-care workers and that he hoped the situation would continue to get better as more staff were hired. Since the end of October when he first made the growing shortage public, two midwives and several full-time nurses have been hired to work at the 34-bed hospital.

"The situation has improved and we continue to be optimistic about the prospects of recruitment."

Patterson attributed the improved situation to the arrival of the board's experienced administrator and chief executive officer, Jarvis Hoult. He added that changes revealed during the last round of board meetings -- including reduced hours of work and smaller patient caseloads -- had helped to raise the morale of the nursing staff.

"We were able to change the management practices to allow (staff) to stay at home until required. It's a process that allows for the maximum use of resources ... it enhanced morale and allowed us to manage difficult situations," said Patterson.

With a possible end to the collective bargaining process in sight, he noted that just the existence of a contract between the government and the union might encourage additional nurses to move North. And despite being bound by GNWT policies that prevent the board from offering housing and rent subsidies to its staff, Patterson said the board was attempting to procure its own long-term residential leases in an attempt to make housing more available at a less expensive rate.

"We're not out of the woods yet, that's for sure. It's a volatile situation but I guess it turned out for everybody."