Current ads
Jobs
Tenders
Notices
General

Click below

Exhausted physicians burning out in Nunavut

“The system depends on someone who stays only a month, maybe two weeks”

JOHN THOMPSON

Family doctors in Nunavut continue to burn out under the pressures of a system where there are too few physicians doing too much work.

That was the message given to Dr. Louise Nasmith, president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, during her first visit to Nunavut last week.

“People can only work so much before burning out,” Nasmith said during a press conference last Wednesday.

The college is responsible for accrediting university programs, and ultimately allowing graduates to receive the title of family doctor.

The organization also lobbies for family doctors across Canada, although they have no chapter in the territories.

This could change.

On Tuesday, July 11, Nasmith met with family doctors in Iqaluit. She says they support the idea of starting a northern chapter, to help get the message out to medical students in the South that they’re wanted in Nunavut, and to shape university curricula to improve medicine in the North.

“Our sense was there was quite an interest in doing that,” Nasmith said.

It’s unusual for a patient in Iqaluit to see the same family doctor twice. That, in part, is because many doctors don’t stay long.

It’s also because unfilled full-time jobs are covered by locums — doctors who will fly in to a location, work for several weeks or a few months, then leave, to be replaced by another doctor who does the same.

That means patients are missing some of the benefits of having a regular family doctor: someone who gets to know you and gives you advice on continuing health issues, such as exercising more or quitting smoking.

“It takes time and investment,” Nasmith said.

Recruiting doctors and keeping them in Nunavut remain the biggest challenges.

And with new hospitals built in Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay, the need for doctors continues to grow.

“We’re short in both Rankin and Cambridge Bay,” said Sandy Macdonald, director of medical affairs.

The Kivalliq region has money to hire six doctors, but only has three full-time doctors on staff, backed up by two locums, leaving one position empty.

The Kitikmeot has money to hire four doctors, but there are only two doctors in Cambridge Bay — one full-time, and one locum, with extra support provided by doctors in Yellowknife.

And the Baffin has funding for 11 doctors, but only eight positions are filled, including one or two locums, said Macdonald.

In total, Nunavut has money to hire 21 doctors — 24, if you add the staff surgeon, anesthesiologist, and Macdonald, the director of medical affairs, to that number.

Ideally, all these positions would be filled by full-time employees.

Instead, “the system depends on someone who stays only a month, maybe two weeks,” Nasmith said.

“It’s better than nothing, but it would be better to recruit people who are truly interested in staying,” she said.

The bad news: the shortage of doctors is a global problem, faced also by big southern cities, not just northern communities.

The good news: Nasmith said Nunavut’s doctors appear to enjoy their jobs and lives in the territory — but they can’t get enough sleep.

“What really gets to them is the fact they’re getting tired, because they’re working so hard,” she said.

“Part of the attraction of the North is getting out and doing things, and they can never do that because they’re so tired.”

Nunavut does have its dedicated long-term physicians, such as Dr. Paul Stubbing, who has served in the eastern Arctic for 28 years, and still works one-month-on, one-month-off.

But Nunavut lacks a core of long-term doctors who would encourage others to stay, Nasmith said.

“If you have a core, you suddenly have people say, ‘This is a place where I want to stay,’” Nasmith said.

Meanwhile, the Baffin Regional Hospital has yet to apply for re-accreditation.

But over the last six months the hospital has hired four more housekeepers, two more registered nurses, two more health records clerks, and three more interpreters, as well as more administrative staff.

All this makes the hospital a safer place, Leonna Aglukkaq, the health minister, said during the last sitting of the legislative assembly.

When the new hospital in Iqaluit opens this fall, the emergency room will move to the new building, leaving the existing building for use as a clinic.

The new building will allow more surgery to take place in Iqaluit, with another full-time operating room opening.

It will also mean less chaos in the hallways and the hospital’s waiting room.

“We have an opportunity to create an actual clinical environment in a place that’s not a battle zone,” Macdonald said.

TOP

Advertising
Specs, rates,
& maps
Multi-paper
buying services
About the market
E-mail ad dept

More Information