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BEAUFORT DELTA
Seven Beaufort Delta communities will be without a doctor this summer, a first that has nothing to do with funding and everything to do with doctors wanting time off to spend with their families, according to Deborah Tynes, CEO of the region's health authority.

"We haven't got any physicians right now. We have physicians, of course, but the bottom line really is this: we have physicians but we do not have enough," she said.

The Inuvik hospital has nine doctors on staff and six are working.

"You will always find in health care that Christmas time and summer time, it's hard to get any kind of professional to come and do services because they're spending time with their families. That's the crux of it. It's not funding, it's none of that. It's the time of year."

The communities of Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tsiigehtchic, Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok normally have a doctor visit every five weeks.

Earlier this summer, the health authority wrote to them saying that for July and August, the Inuvik Regional Hospital doesn't have any to spare.

Janet Kanayok, mayor of Ulukhaktok, said it prompted her community to send a letter to the health authority pleading for service to return.

"Adequate services such as doctor's clinics are vital to the communities because of the remoteness of fly-in communities," she wrote in her letter dated July 14.

"It is unacceptable."

She said for residents with health problems, it's an added stress.

The Beaufort Delta communities, with the exception of Tsiigehtchic, still have nurses on-site, according to Tynes.

Rhonda MacDonald, a community health nurse, is currently stationed in Paulatuk, but over the past four years she has worked in Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, Behchoko, Deline, Tulita, Norman Wells and Fort McPherson.

She said working without a doctor is an inconvenience for patients and adds paperwork and stress, but is a necessary evil they're more than equipped to deal with.

"We're the doctor, we're the X-ray tech, we're the lab tech, we're the pharmacy. We do casting, we do suturing, you know, we do whatever we can to keep the patient alive. We deliver babies," she said.

Not having a doctor on the ground means she has to postpone treatment for patients or, in rare cases, fly them to the Inuvik Regional Hospital.

When she was working in Tuktoyaktuk, she said between six and 10 patients flew to Inuvik each week.

She also calls doctors and residents more often to ask for guidance, or about medications, when there are none in town. MacDonald said it's a collaborative effort that, for the most part, works well.

"If everyone works together, we're going to be fine," she said.

Doctor visits will start up again in the Beaufort Delta communities in September.

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