Jake Kennedy
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 02/02) - Health Minister Michael Miltenberger has had a consistent message during the recent health care crisis: a national shortage of health care workers has hit the Northwest Territories hard, making it difficult for the NWT to recruit and retain nurses and doctors.

The ministry of health and social services for the NWT would not return repeated phone messages asking to explain how effective the recruitment campaign has been.

But a look at a couple of key Web sites tells some of the story.

According to Medhunters.com a leading recruitment company for health care professionals, there are 31 jobs currently available in the Northwest Territories, and 139 unfilled jobs in Nunavut.

By comparison, the Yukon is advertising 19 jobs, Nova Scotia has posted 17 openings, and Quebec shows 27 jobs advertised on the Web site.

Based on Med hunters.com, Inuvik leads the shortage for the NWT with nine openings. That number is followed closely by Rae-Edzo with seven advertised openings.

In Nunavut, staff shortages are seen most heavily in Iqaluit (22 job openings) and Cambridge Bay (14 job openings).

The Nunavut Health and Social Services Department did not return phone calls to comment on the number of job openings, and the effectiveness of their recruitment campaign.

A look at job postings on the GNWT Web site paints a similar picture.

At the Hay River Community Health Board, 12 jobs are being advertised -- the same number of openings being advertised for in Yellowknife.

The abundance of job postings continues when looking at the Web site for the Stanton Territorial Hospital www.hlthss.gov.nt.ca where some postings, such as registered nurses and mammography technologists, are given no closing date -- the jobs are being advertised on an ongoing basis.

At Stanton, nine jobs are being posted with no closing date for applications, and another 10 jobs are being advertised with closing dates of up to February 2003.