The NWT's largest hospital is suffering from overcrowded conditions and staff safety concerns, and action is needed on both fronts, says Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart.
Patients are "more or less warehoused in waiting rooms... they're spending days on stretchers in an overcrowded emergency department" due to the strain of high demand, he said of reports he's receiving. This means "care is delayed, tensions run high and safety risks multiply," he added.
In the legislative assembly on March 4, Testart asked Health Minister Lesa Semmler what she's doing to address the "gridlock."
Semmler acknowledged the overflow issues. Stanton has been sitting at or above 100 per cent capacity for the past year, she said.
There's usually five patients in the emergency department waiting for a bed in the in-patient unit, according to the minister. In addition, staff have had to open extra beds in the intensive care unit three to five days per month to treat and discharge emergency room patients.
On average, five to eight surgical procedures per month have had to be cancelled due to the lack of available beds for post-operative care, she added.
To address this, Semmler said she's looking at how the department is supporting small communities and regional centres because many of the Stanton patients come from those places.
"There's much work that needs to be done in the outlying [communities] to support people to have access to care sooner so that it's reducing the amount that's needed on in-patient care," the minister said. "As this is ongoing work that's happening, and reviewing the model of healthcare centres and many of these things, these things are going to take time."
She noted that gridlock is also an issue at southern hospitals.
Testart pointed out that the GNWT's public administrator for the Department of Health has been in place since December and has an "expansive mandate." What is he doing to solve the problems, Testart asked.
Semmler said he's working on those issues along with other challenges "that have been higher prioritized right now," but she didn't specify what they are.
Escalating violence
Testart also raised the issue of Stanton staff safety as he contended that they are "increasingly facing threats, verbal abuse and even physical assaults."
He cited an alarming incident from March 1 when an individual entered the hospital "in a hostile state." The later revealed that a person is accused of pointing a handgun at a security officer outside the facility.
"It is completely unacceptable... that emergency department staff have cause to fear for their safety," said Testart. "The NWT's experiencing both a drug crisis and mental health crisis exacerbated by increasing poverty and homelessness. So it is no surprise that violence is escalating at an emergency department which has become the only place many Northerners can find care."
He added that the only thing standing between health staff and those posing threats are private security guards who have "neither the training nor the commitment to handle firearms."
"They are not able to contain threats like these, and the hospital itself has no code silver for them to call despite repeated requests at occupational health and safety meetings from staff for new procedures like a code silver to be implemented," Testart said.
Code silver is a safety protocol used at some hospitals and police are notified when it is declared.
Semmler replied that a draft code silver policy for the NWT is being reviewed by stakeholders. She couldn't provide a date for implementation, however.
The minister acknowledged that health staff in Hay River have also expressed concerns for their safety.
"And so we take this very seriously," she said. "And there is ongoing work right now learning from this specific incident [in Yellowknife on March 1], and any other incidents before but, you know, highlighting that the place that we're living right now with guns and violence and the toxic drugs that are affecting all of our communities now, we are looking at this."
