An overwhelming number of physicians in the NWT were locums last calendar year. The GNWT spent nearly $41 million on those locums in 2024, according to documents obtained via an access to information request.
The Department of Health and Social Services made use of 509 locums in 2024, according to the requested documents. In contrast, there were only 50 physicians registered in the territory as of Sept. 30, 2024, according to Krystal Pidborochynski, a communications director with the NWT Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA).
A locum refers to a temporarily contracted physician. It's becoming the more common option in the NWT, according to the NTHSSA, which says more physicians prefer being a locum since it offers greater flexibility in their work schedules and time off. However, Courtney Howard, president of the NWT Medical Association, explained how it puts the territory in a compromising position.
"If any more permanent physicians leave, it's going to put so much stress on everyone else in an already stressed system," she said, who also noted the NWT recently lost several senior health professionals from primary care.
Most locums SA国际影视传媒� 342 to be exact SA国际影视传媒� were family practitioners while the rest were specialists. At minimum, the daily rate for a family practitioner was $1,409 for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The maximum rate was $1,878. For a specialist, those numbers are even higher: between $1,962 and $2,354 a day.
Daily and hourly rate expenses include full- and partial-service days, additional hours, callback hours and travel day expenses, the document explains.
Of that roughly $40 million figure, about $6 million went towards travel and accommodations for locums. Travel costs cover much more than a plane ticket, according to the information provided. It also includes airfare, hotel while in-transit to and from the NWT, paying for cabs and renting a vehicle.
Howard added that she's grateful for the locums who come up to the territory to work. But paying for people to fly up here for the short-term means a high cost for taxpayers, not an investment, she contended.
"It's a cost because we're not building for the future," she said, adding it would be better to invest in relationships with permanent doctors. "That will have potential benefits into the future."
Another problem is what Howard described as the administrative burden.
"One of the senior positions who's leaving at this particular moment, he's spending his entire afternoon, every day, doing paperwork," she said. "He is supposed to be teaching residents at the same time too."
This kind of burden is changing the balance of how much doctors are enjoying working in the NWT, according to Howard. One solution, she suggested, is automation.
"If we can really lean into fast-tracking some of these things in a responsible way, I think we can vastly improve experience for both doctors and patients."
Another solution, Howard mentioned, is by following an 'interspace negotiations framework,' which other provincial and territorial medical associations have been adopting. The framework is as follows: all parties share their needs and concerns, then brainstorm solutions. It is meant to encourage communication and collaboration, instead of sending letters back-and-forth through lawyers, which can stifle conversations, Howard explained.
"It really is a very different way of negotiating and everybody needs training in order to be able to do it properly," said Howard. So, ideally, medical association and GNWT negotiators could take some training through federal programs on how to do this, she suggested. They would agree on a mediator and spend time together in the same room sorting through problems until they come to a consensus, said explained.
"Whenever anything comes up, you can solve it so much faster because you have that existing sense of generosity and trust in the other party to not only brainstorm and problem-solve with you in good faith, but also implement things that work," she said.
