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WHITEHORSE – The Yukon Party Official Opposition is urging the Minister of Health and Social Services to listen to health professionals and finally take their concerns seriously by addressing long wait times, overcrowding in the Whitehorse hospital, chronic underfunding of our hospitals, and staff shortages.
The President of the Yukon Medical Association and a well-respected longtime Yukon surgeon both issued letters calling for urgent action from the Yukon Government to fix the growing health care crisis. Dr. Alex Kmet recently wrote to all three party leaders about the worsening situation at our hospitals, and the need to ‘appropriately resource and support our health care system’. Dr. David Storey wrote a letter to the editor outlining the hospital’s ‘musical bed’ situation, ‘record-breaking wait times’, and the negative impact on Yukon patients. He goes on to list five actions the government could take to help address these issues.
All this follows scathing comments about the state of the Yukon’s health care system from another prominent Yukon doctor last winter, the former president of the Yukon Medical Association, Dr. Rao Tadepalli, who described the territory’s health system as on the ‘down slide and crashing’.
The territorial Liberals have worsened the health care crisis by underfunding the Yukon Hospital Corporation, as confirmed by a 2023 independent review by Ernst & Young covering four years of financial statements. The review found the Yukon Hospital Corporation suffered from a ‘chronic cash flow and operating shortfall’ for years under the territorial Liberal government.
“We continue to see well-respected Yukon doctors making public comments about the growing crisis in the Yukon’s health care system,” said Health and Social Services Critic Brad Cathers. “My colleagues and I have been calling for more funding for our hospitals for years, but the Liberal government has neglected our hospitals to the point where even an independent report Premier Pillai commissioned concluded Yukon Hospitals suffer from a ‘chronic cash flow and operating shortfall’. The territorial Liberal government is out of touch with patients, failing to invest in our hospitals, and continues to ignore the calls from doctors for real action.”
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Contact:
Tim Kucharuk
Media Director
(867) 689-7874
