SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Visits to Yellowknife's primary care clinics were up 18.4 per cent in October to December of last year, according to the new chief executive officer for the Yellowknife Heath and Social Services Authority.

The Yellowknife Primary Care Centre opened its doors in June 2010 and has had an 18 per cent increase in visits in the past quarter. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Harrison said in addition to the increase in visit volume, "no-show" rates have been lower in the last six months in comparison to previous years.

"Will that continue? We don't know. We need more time to evaluate but the numbers, thus far, are positive," he said.

The $6.5-million primary care centre opened its doors on 48 Street in June 2010, combining the staff and services from the city's four downtown medical clinics.

Harrison said improved access to the public in the downtown location as well as the walk-ins being open evenings from Monday to Thursday and during the day on Saturday allows for people to use the centres more often.

"Also, the physical access for people with disabilities has improved so in general it's a larger space, it's easier for people to move around in," he said.

Harrison also said the establishment of services such as the lab, X-ray and bone densitometry downtown allow more options for the public available in one location.

"Really, it's about access and that’s what we were trying to do, improve the capacity with existing services, existing resources to take more clients," said Harrison.

"How can we make the best efficient use of our existing resources? I think that's what we're doing now with the primary care centre and Frame Lake clinic too."

Dr. Anna Reid, past president of the NWTMA, says recruitment of family doctors to the city has been so successful that the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority has a full complement.

"We're turning people away all the time that want to come and work here. We're still looking for a couple of specialist physicians at Stanton that we're looking to fill but otherwise we're fully staffed there," said Reid.

"Our biggest problem is we're in basically a bit of a crisis situation in our other communities. As of the end of March we will be down to only one full-time family doctor in Inuvik."

Reid said besides dealing with a huge doctor shortage in Canada as a whole, recent graduates do not have the confidence to apply to positions in rural areas because they feel their skills are not well enough developed to be working on their own.

She said models are being developed to maximize physician resources by using technology such as medical imaging through electronic picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) to provide specialist support to communities.

"We're getting more support in that we can actually transfer images and stuff like that and tell people what to do and in the past they didn't have that ability to be supported that way," said Reid.

"We're actually starting to see people who are trained specifically to work in small communities so I think we're going to start to have better luck attracting people but it has traditionally been difficult."

She said territory-wide recruitment strategies are continuously being developed and carried out, which includes interacting with various residency programs across the country.

"I think one of the big things we can be successful with in the north is really inviting people to become involved in the grassroots level and help build the system to a way that's improved. I think when you do that, people get committed to it and want to stay and are proud of what they built. That’s a big part of what we're trying to work on now with retaining and recruiting physicians."

According to the Department of Health and Social Services, the number of doctors in the NWT decreased by 18 per cent between Dec 31, 2009 and November 29, 2010.

However the department says access to health care service has not decreased.

"We are looking at ways on how to best use physician resources, nurses and primary health care teams to ensure people across the NWT will have better services and more equal access to services," said Umesh Sutendra, department communications specialist.

He said there are several initiatives underway to recruit doctors including a website, medical school bursaries, the Aboriginal Health Human Resources Initiative to increase the number of aboriginal health care workers, and a video for junior high school students encouraging youth to get involved in health programs and professions.

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