There will be no layoffs at Stanton Territorial Hospital as some funding specific to the Covid-19 pandemic ends next month, the NWT’s health minister said on Tuesday.
Previously, the CBC had reported the territory was planning to cut staff and beds at the hospital when temporary funding to boost the hospital’s capacity ended on March 31.
Answering questions from Frame Lake MLA Julian Morse in the legislature, Lesa Semmler said: “There are no layoffs in the NTHSSA as a result of this sunsetting funding.”
The health minister continued: “It’s important to understand that many positions added with this funding, we were never able to staff them … and so the staffing impacts associated with this Covid funding … we’re not seeing any layoffs or anything like that.”
Semmler said some positions had been filled by casuals or people on transfer assignments who would now return to their home positions.
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
She said the end of that funding would mean a reduction in beds, but that “doesn’t mean we’re going to go in and we’re going to tape up beds in the hospital and you’re not going to use them.”
Meanwhile, Semmler said last week’s announcement of $36 million in extra federal funding over five years was likely to offset reductions necessary because the Covid-19 funding is ending.
“There are going to be new positions created in some of these units and so, when we talk about a lot of what’s going away from Covid, we’ve been able to integrate a lot of those positions into this new funding,” she said.
“We have to ensure that the staff are supported, that they have what they need, and we will not jeopardize patient care. That is not something that I will do as a minister.”
Advertisement.
Advertisement.
The health minister did not directly address one concern expressed by Morse, that nursing aide positions in the hospital’s medicine unit were expected to be lost.
“Over the past five years, nursing aides have been indispensable members of nursing teams in the NWT, particularly shining during the pandemic as unsung heroes alongside nurses,” Morse said.
“Nursing aides play an important role in the quality of care offered to northerners. Reinforcing these positions is crucial to maintaining and improving a high standard of care. Eliminating these positions could not only deteriorate care standards, but also demoralize our healthcare workers who, in the face of growing pressures, continue to selflessly serve northerners when we are actively working to recruit and notably retain nurses.”
One healthcare worker who contacted Cabin Radio said employees had been told nursing aide positions in the medicine unit would no longer be staffed as of April 1.
