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NUNAVUT
Nunavut spent $11 million over 20 months to bring in temporary doctors to work at Qikiqtani General Hospital and community visits for Qikiqtaaluk region, confirmed the territorial chief of staff last week.

Dr. William (Sandy) MacDonald explained Nunavut funds about 30 physician positions, two surgeons and 28 family physicians. Fourteen of them are considered long-term, meaning they've been in the territory more than one year, he added. When they can't get a long-term doctor, they rely on what are called locums, explained MacDonald.

"They have a pretty sweet deal," he said. "They get flown up here. They get free accommodation and they get paid well, like doctors do everywhere. If we didn't need them, we wouldn't hire them. I'd rather not use them but when the choice is between having them or nothing, then we have to make a difficult decision."

For instance, no doctors were available to work on the nights of the Labour Day weekend last year, explained MacDonald, when a doctor in the south offered to forgo his holiday to come up.

"I thought, that's a lot of money for two nights but we had no one else to cover the shift," he said. "If your hospital is in rural Ontario and you don't have a doctor to work the weekend, you can close it down and say, 'Drive one hour down the road to the next hospital.' We don't have that option in Iqaluit."

Locums typically stay a minimum of two weeks but some come for shorter stays, with those in the Kivalliq staying a minimum of one week, he added.

MacDonald admitted the territory relies a lot on locums, and that's not the best solution but the second-best solution when the alternative is to have no one.

"You make decisions that are not optimal in terms of how you are spending your money, but sometimes we don't have a choice for these critical positions," said MacDonald.

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