Michelle DaCruz
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 12/02) - Stanton Regional Hospital closed its intensive care unit last Friday, almost two weeks before they planned, due to a nurse's illness.

"ICU services were not available due to a unexpected illness on staff," said Dennis Cleaver, executive director of the Stanton Regional Health Authority.

The four-bed ICU unit needs nine full-time nurses to be fully staffed, and they were operating with the equivalent of 3.25 staff.

Cleaver confirmed that ICU services were not available from Friday morning until Monday afternoon.

He could not confirm if the unit will reopen before its scheduled summer closure on June 21.

"We were looking to close on the June long weekend (Aboriginal Day, Friday, June 21), but it might close a few days earlier," said Cleaver. "We will be assessing the situation over the next few days."

On Friday there were only two patients in the ICU, said Cleaver. One was pre-scheduled to be medevaced to Edmonton, but the other had to be airlifted to Fort McMurray Regional Hospital.

Cleaver admitted the unexpected closure resulted in an additional medevac, which costs approximately $7,000 per trip.

A third patient arrived after the closure and is currently being treated in emergency.

"This patient needed the skills of an experienced nursing staff and we were able to provide it," said Cleaver.

During the closure patients will be treated in the medical in-patient, emergency and surgery (until it closes for summer) units of the hospital, not the pediatric ward, as was previously told to the Yellowknifer..

As of Monday afternoon there were a total of two patients receiving critical care in the hospital's medicine in-patient unit.

Cleaver calls the ICU "relatively small."

"The ICU has an occupancy rate of only about 40 per cent on average during a year," he said.

Cleaver is certain the ICU will open by the beginning of September. Recruitment and an in-hospital training program will boost staffing numbers back up to nine full-time nurses, he said.

The hospital's clinical co-ordinator will train up to five nurses over the course of the summer.

The program will provide two weeks of on-site classroom theory and the rest will be hands-on training with patients. The amount of clinical training will depend on the nurses' experience.

"The training will be provided by a clinical instructor who is also a nurse, a very experienced critical care nurse," said Cleaver.