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BEAUFORT DELTA
Doctors have resumed their regular visits to communities in the Beaufort Delta after some disruptions throughout the summer caused by physicians' vacation time.

Dr. Tarun Shaha of Beaufort Delta Health and Social Services checks out airplane crash 'victim' John Dixon during a MACA emergency drill in Inuvik back in 2005. Inuvik-based doctors recently resumed their Beaufort Delta communities' doctors' visits after a short hiatus over this past summer. - NNSL file photo

"The community schedule has been resumed this month. So it's all business as normal," said Damien Healy, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services. "There were some slight interruptions during the summer with doctor holidays, but everything is back on schedule and all the communities have been notified when their visits will occur."

According to the department, doctors have been on the rounds since last month, visiting Fort McPherson from Sept. 12 to 18, Ulukhaktok and Tsiigehtchic from Sept. 19 to 25, and in Aklavik from Sept. 16 to Oct. 7.

Rhonda Macdonald, acting nurse in charge at the Paulatuk Health and Social Services Centre, said the community has not had a doctor visit since before July, but the clinic is scheduled for a doctor's visit on Oct. 5 for three days. "I'm sure we'll be able to keep him full," she said. "If nothing else, our chronic patients need to be seen."

"Certainly it's more expensive when you don't have a doctor because you have to fly more people out for stuff," she said. "We sent someone out for an ingrown toenail, which we wouldn't have done if we had a doctor coming in. We would have waited."

Normally, the Beaufort Delta communities of Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tsiigehtchic, Tuktoyaktuk and Ulukhaktok have a doctor visit every five weeks throughout the year.

"There's nothing you can do when the summer holidays are in effect, but we do our best to juggle the schedule and make sure there is continuous coverage," said Healy. "Not all communities are ever going to have the same access. So we're always working to see what the correct service level is. That may mean a nurse practitioner, that may mean a health representative or maybe a community health nurse."

The disruption to community doctors' visits is a symptom of the larger issue of there simply being too few doctors, says Healy.

"We've been saying this forever, but physician recruitment is a global shortage. It's tough to recruit and we're hoping to improve that practice more."

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