Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 06/00) - The attack on the $1.3 million deficit at Stanton Regional Hospital may drive nurses south and overload the Yellowknife-based health care system, warn spokespersons for health care professionals.

Facts Stanton Regional Hospital opened 1988 Beds: 118 after latest cut of 10 beds Employee positions: 425 Nurses: 158 full-time, part-time and casual In-patient days: 23,736 in 1994-95; 21,484 in 1999

The warnings were sounded after Dennis Cleaver, Stanton's chief executive officer, announced a plan to merge the pediatric and surgical wards in the largest hospital in the Northwest Territories.

Cleaver said there will be further cost-cutting measures as the board eliminates its deficit.

Linda Heimbach, president of the NWT Registered Nurses Association, said "this increase in the workload will add stress" to the jobs of eight nurses affected by the plan that takes effect next Tuesday.

The added workload might prompt the Stanton's nurses to look south where there are hundreds of vacant jobs for health care professionals, said Georgina Rolt-Kaiser, president of the Union of Northern Workers.

"Recruitment and retention of health care professionals has been a major concern in the NWT for some time," she said.

"Increasing the workload of the nurses may end up chasing them away."

Sharing their concerns is Al Wood, chief executive officer of the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Board, which manages home care services in the city.

Stanton's deficit strategy depends in part on reducing the length of time surgical patients spend in hospital and that could increase demand for home care services.

"We're full right now and any extra will have an impact," said Wood. Heimbach agreed that a job in the South, where living costs are lower, might look attractive to nurses faced with a heavier work load and a long Northern winter.

"We're certainly concerned that this might drive people south, but those jobs have high work loads too," she said.

"Our main concern is the safety of the public. We will be watching closely, but we are confident that standards will be maintained."

Cleaver said that the health care standards would not be affected by cost cutting and characterized the changes as "an excellent opportunity for our staff to grow professionally."

The hospital ended the last fiscal year with a deficit of $1.6 million - $300,000 of which was covered by an accumulated surplus. Cost-cutting measures announced this week would slash $350,000 annually from the budget that neared $48 million this year.

Cleaver said that Stanton's board has "come to an understanding" with the NWT department of Health that it will take time to eliminate the hospital's deficit.