This is a quote from the outline to the Med-Emerg project, a report created in response to interviews with those working in health and social services, as well as a review of existing studies and reports.

It gives voice to universal health-care concerns from around the territories.

A second quote from the Med-Emerg outline reads "Many NWT physicians express satisfaction with the varied and interesting patients' problems they encounter, but they are frustrated with fee reductions and poor communications with the department and are concerned about education of their children, housing, a lack of continuing education and other issues."

Keith Dennison, director of human resources with the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board, said there are three main reasons why the Baffin regional has difficulty retaining trained professionals.

"There is a shortage of good accommodation," said Dennison. For example, many singles and couples pay between $1,100 and $1,600 for a simple apartment.

Dennison said the problem only got worse when the government stopped providing accommodation.

Baffin area professionals also have to deal with the recent withdrawal of funding for travel assistance.

And then there's physician licensing. For a physician to maintain a licence in another province, he or she must spend several months of the year working in that province.

Dennison says many physicians working in the Baffin region are licensed in other provinces and as a result, take only short-term contracts in the North. However, he also reports some recent success in recruiting more long-term physicians.

"In the short term, we are working on improving our recruitment strategy to attract professionals interested in the unique positive experience Baffin has to offer," said Dennison.

Also on the bright side is the drive to recruit and train permanent Northern residents as health professionals.

Beginning this fall, Nunavut Aurora College Campus will offer a "prep" year for a degree program in nursing.

Nell Vrolyk, president of the NWT Registered Nurses Association, voiced similar concerns about attracting health-care professionals to permanent Northern positions.

"The experienced resource people are disappearing and that is the bottom line," said Vrolyk in a May press release.

Vrolyk also raised concerns that approximately 40 per cent of nurses in the NWT have less than three years of experience and as a result, she is worried about the ability to provide safe, quality care to patients in facilities, homes and outlying communities.