X-rays are latest service affected by health staffing crisis

X-ray services at the Yellowknife Primary Care Centre are cancelled on Thursday and Friday in the latest manifestation of a staffing crisis in the NWT’s healthcare system.

That crisis had been building for years but is being exacerbated by a Covid-19 Omicron-variant wave that involved almost 1,200 active cases across the territory as of Wednesday.

The NWT’s health authority said “staffing challenges” had forced the cancellation of X-ray services for two days, but did not elaborate on the nature of those challenges other than to say they were unexpected.

“Primary care clinic services and laboratory services are still available. Regular services are expected to resume Wednesday, January 19, 2022,” the health authority said in a statement.

Meanwhile, rehab services at Stanton “will be ramped down to urgent and emergent only,” the authority said earlier this week.

Last week, the authority said appointments and surgeries in Yellowknife that aren’t urgent were being delayed or cancelled “to facilitate staffing of essential areas” as the Omicron wave grew.

The health authority now expects those delays and cancellations to continue until at least January 28.