Yellowknife (Nov 26/04) - When the numbers were in and crunched, the Stanton Territorial Health Authority emerged from the 2003-04 fiscal year with an operating deficit of $168,162.

There's something about the word "deficit" that strikes fear in the hearts of accountants, but as Robert Adolph, chief financial officer for Stanton explained, it's not so dire after all considering the hospital has an annual budget of about $65 million.

"It's quite manageable," he said. "It's not even half a per cent of our budget for the year."

Costs did jump in some areas due to increased traffic, but were dealt with either through savings in other areas of the hospital, or through funding injections from the GNWT, explained Adolph.

Stanton Hospital receives most of its money from the GNWT, but also gets payment from the Government of Nunavut for patients it treats, and from the insurance plans or home provinces of hospitalized visitors.

"I'm really impressed with Stanton," said Dave Murray, deputy health minister and public administrator for the Stanton authority. "Not only with the quality of the staff and the hard work they do, but with the way they've been able to stabilize the problems we had in the past."

Murray pointed to increased staff levels, noting the success of Stanton's recently-acquired orthopedic surgeon -- its second -- who has performed more than 35 joint replacement procedures since arriving this summer. The new nursing placement program through Aurora College will also be very helpful, he said. Continuing to increase staffing, particularly for psychiatry; improving nursing training and hiring more nurse-practitioners; cross-training staff so they can move between departments; and streamlining emergency services all remain priorities, he said.

Also in the works are structural upgrades.

Renovations are currently in the planning stage, with more than $9 million earmarked to be spent by the end of 2007-08. Spending, laid out in the Major Upgrade Plan, will increase yearly and total an estimated $5.8 million in 2007-08.