NWT Medical Association optimistic doctor shortage can be beaten
 At any given time, two temporary relief doctors (locums) such as Dr. Kathy Ferguson (left) are brought to the Stanton Regional Hospital. Dr. Ferguson of Regina, Saskatchewan, recently worked in the emergency unit with nurse Chanda Anderson of Yellowknife -- Glen Vienneau/NNSL photo |
Glen Vienneau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jun 28/00) - A new approach is under way to fix the doctor shortage in Yellowknife.
The Yellowknife Health and Social Services board plans to take over the city's four medical clinics. Doctors will then be offered salaried positions as opposed to the current fee for service system. At the same time, a recruitment drive has been started.
Fact File:
Number of doctors in the NWT:
1998 - 62 total, 47 GPs, 15 specialists
Number of doctors in NWT in January 1999 according to the Canadian Medical Association:
-48 general practitioners
NWT doctor and patient ratio, from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI):
-one GP for 1,440 patients
Provincial doctor/patient ratio figures by CIHI for December 1998:
Ontario:
-one GP for every 1,070 patients
British Columbia:
-one GP for every 943 patients
Quebec:
-one GP for every 956 patients
|
"There's a shortage of doctors, period," says Dr. David King, president of the NWT Medical Association. "You've got to attract them first. If you don't get somebody's attention, they're never going to come up here to look."
Earlier this month, King attended the annual general meeting for the Medical Society of Nova Scotia. He wanted to stimulate interest in the opportunities in the North.
"I had the opportunity to speak with approximately 75 doctors," says King, who believes he may have caught the attention of five or six Maritime doctors.
"The recruiting that's gone on before, they haven't actually gone out to where the doctors were having their meetings. People think it's isolated, people have misconceptions of what it's like up here.
"They probably think we all live in iglus, they don't know we have good medical facilities with CT Scans and all that other stuff."
King says there's little doubt the shortage here is worse than the rest of the country.
"If there's a shortage anywhere, rural or remote areas suffer the most," he says.
In Yellowknife, about 14 general practitioners are working between 60 and 70 hours a week. He estimates the city is short 10 to 12 physicians.
For King, meeting with the Maritime doctors was a definite step in the right direction.
"It's five or six more we didn't have phoning up here," he says.
Waiting their turn
On top of the pressures facing doctors in the North, King says patients, too, are bearing the brunt of the current shortage.
Patients like Barbara Fournier, who had to wait four months into her pregnancy to see a doctor.
Although a clinic nurse attended her immediate needs last April, she was only able to make a doctor's appointment three months into her term, and that was because she suffered from kidney stones. That visit, which took two weeks, resulted in Fournier being booked for an ultrasound which, despite the urgency, took another two weeks.
It was during the ultrasound when Fournier was informed she was carrying twins.
"They told me to book an appointment right away, which took another two weeks, at that point I was four months pregnant," Fournier says, adding, "I saw a resident and then they transferred me to another clinic and I don't have that appointment until June 30."
"I'm concerned," Fournier says. "If it was one child, because I've had one, it's okay, but because it is two I have so many questions that are unanswered."
Because of the shortage of doctors in Yellowknife, more and more patients are relying on the emergency unit at Stanton Regional Hospital for care.
"It is meaning that we are seeing more people," confirms Lona Heinzig, hospital ambulatory services manager.
In emergency, Heinzig says patients with the most acute illnesses have a priority. In the clinics, patients are booked on a first-come first-served basis.
"Most people we are seeing that have minor complaints have tried, and just aren't able to get an appointment," she said, adding that it may be days or weeks for patients to see a doctor in a clinic.
Minor complaints treated in the emergency room do add some pressure on the staff, according to Heather Chang, quality management co-ordinator and patient representative at Stanton.
"If the clinics were better staffed, people wouldn't need to come, and I don't think they want to come to the emergency department," says Chang.
"If the clinics weren't so overloaded, then it would take the pressure of us," she says.
