Canada’s prime ministers met in Victoria this week for the Federation Council summit, and pressures on the country’s health care systems were high on the agenda. The premiers called on the federal government to increase the amount of provincial and territorial health care costs covered by Ottawa through the Canada Health Transfer, from 22 per cent to 35 per cent, in a joint statement released Tuesday. The Canada Health Transfer is the largest transfer payment the federal government makes to provinces and territories. In the Northwest Territories, such an increase, as proposed by the premiers, would amount to an additional $32 million, Cochrane said at a media briefing on Wednesday. “While this would help support the already strained health care system, it does not fully address the gaps that exist today – additional investment from Canada will be required,” he said. It’s hard to put a dollar figure on how much more money the NWT needs, especially amid the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, Cochrane said, but “we need more.”
Health and social services are regularly in short supply
The Department of Health and Social Services is regularly in deficit, the prime minister said. “I hate to say it, but I call often [Health and Social Services] the poor cousin because other departments are diligently trying to make sure they’re within budgets, but how do you say no to health care?’ he said. “As a cabinet, we all recognize that although they have a budget, that it will be overstretched.” The district estimates that this year, more than $594 million — nearly 29 percent of its budget — will be spent on health and social services. Almost $54 million is set to come through the Canada Health Transfer. In their case for increasing federal health care transfers, the premiers are referring to the national level shortages of health personnela problem with which the Northwest Territories are all too familiar. This summer, a staff shortage forced the North West Territories Health and Social Services Authority reduced laboratory and diagnostic imaging services in Yellowknife and physician availability in Hay River;. The health authority also blamed staff shortages for it suspension of maternity services at Stanton Territorial Hospital last winter. Canada’s prime ministers answer questions from the media on the final day of the Federation Council summer meeting at the Fairmont Empress in Victoria, BC, on Tuesday. (Cad Hipolito/The Canadian Press)
Staffing shortages drive up health care costs, says MLA
Lesa Semmler, MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes, has worked as a nurse and in other healthcare roles in the NWT for 17 years. He said ongoing shortages of health workers are costing the region even more money. “We’re so understaffed that the majority of staff are always working overtime … and that’s something that’s not budgeted for,” he said. “In my past experience, you can’t budget for overtime, so it’s always just an added expense.” Cochrane said the region has long struggled to recruit health professionals, despite offering attractive salaries and benefits. The pandemic made matters worse as southern jurisdictions raised wages and benefits to attract more health care workers to their overburdened systems, destroying the NWT’s competitive position. Cochrane said in response that the territorial government has pushed harder to recruit and retain health care staff and that push is now paying off. “Just in the last 30 days we’ve seen an increase in nurses coming to the Northwest Territories,” she said. “It’s a start, but it’s something we’re going to have to put a lot of emphasis on, probably for the next couple of years.” Semler said she hadn’t heard about the new nurses and wondered if they were permanent or local. “Because we had a lot of nurses, and that, too, is an additional cost to the health care system: covering the costs for travel, and per diems, and all the other costs that come with flying in and out of nurses for short periods,” he said. . “We need to find a way to secure more nurses in the long term, because the health of the people of the North West will only improve when our health professionals live here and know the people.” Semmler said the ongoing staff shortage is not the only strain on the NWT’s health care system. The region deals with numerous extraordinary health care expenses, from medevacs, to medical travel, to out-of-state long-term care and addiction treatment.
