NWT Health and Social Services Authorities are notifying residents that throughout the summer months low staffing levels across a number of areas may lead to service reductions or closures.
At this time the following impacts are expected:
Starting July 5th Hay River Health and Social Services Authority will be moving to intermittent physician services in the community. Physician coverage between July and September is not guaranteed and at times where a physician is not present in community patients will access care through nursing staff, virtual services with the support of a local nurse to triage, or in cases where escalation of care or physician services are required patients may be moved for care. Ongoing contingency planning aims to minimize service reductions for residents of Hay River and recruitment is ongoing.
Starting June 27th Laboratory and Diagnostic Imaging services at the Yellowknife Primary Care Centre laboratory site will be closed until September 5th, 2022. Staffing this service has been an ongoing issue and impacts have been announced as they presented. Constant intermittent closures have added frustration for staff, providers, and patients. During this extended closure the focus will be on assessing our service model and staff recruitment. Current hours for Stanton Lab can be found here.
The NTHSSA is working to proactively identify any further service level impacts through a region-by-region assessment of service levels for the period of July through September and will communicate any further detail around service reductions or closures when this assessment is complete.
