A strong recovery requires leadership, bold ideas, and action — and we need your help! Add your name if you'll stand with Currie Dixon and the Yukon Party!
WHITEHORSE – A Yukon Party government will reduce wait times for essential health procedures. Whether due to the pandemic, systemic challenges, or a lack of resources, the wait times for several important procedures available at Whitehorse General Hospital have lengthened.
“Quality health care is timely health care,” said Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon. “The Yukon Party will take action for a change to reduce wait times and ensure Yukoners get the care they need when they need it.”
To achieve this a Yukon Party government will create a Wait Time Reduction Strategy to:
- Collect and compile procedure data from WGH programs and services, laboratory services, and medical imaging.
- Rank and prioritize procedures with backlogged wait times.
- Identify the necessary resources to address these back logs.
- Consider what procedures should be delivered within the territory.
- Improve public awareness of wait times through a publicly available “dashboard.”
A Yukon Party government will also provide the Yukon Hospital Corporation (YHC) with the stable, predictable funding it needs to deliver quality care, which included an annual increase. Further to this, a Yukon Party government will also work with YHC to:
- Develop a capital plan for the corporation.
- Begin construction of a new Secure Medical Unit at the WGH and ensure proper training and protocols are in place.
- Improve surgical services area at the WGH.
- Ensure that capital buildings, equipment purchases, and program improvements are built into the Yukon government’s budget planning.
- Ensure that adequate supports exist for staff at health care facilities to prevent staff burn-out.
The pandemic has demonstrated that a comprehensive range of care can be delivered remotely. However, when Yukoners are required to travel to receive care, they need better support.
To help improve access to necessary care, a Yukon Party government will:
- Explore the creation of Territorial Medical Director.
- Increase the availability and use of virtual care.
- Improve access to physicians and nurse practitioners based on data from the Find a Family Doctor tool and emergency department usage at Whitehorse General Hospital, Watson Lake Community Hospital, and Dawson City Community Hospital.
- Review rural dental services to ensure they are meeting the needs of our communities.
“By investing in the health of Yukoners, we’re making an investment in the territory’s future. Together, these measures are going to help us build a healthier, stronger Yukon for all of us,” added Dixon.
The Yukon Party has released its Action for a Change plan: The party’s visionary platform document for the success of the territory focuses on Economic Recovery, Supporting Yukon Families, and Safe and Growing Communities. These pillars rest on a foundation of Good Governance and result in a Strong Yukon Recovery.
The party’s Action for a Change platform contains specific actions:
- Working with public health professionals to provide a plan for a safe reopening.
- Supports for business through to recovery, including cutting red tape, economic diversification, creating new private sector opportunities, and bolstering the Yukon’s tourism industry.
- Addressing energy and climate change, making record investments in green energy, and ending the practice of renting diesel generators.
- Providing support to Yukoners all the way from birth to post-secondary. With specific actions for health beginnings, enhance early learning and childcare with a universal benefit that leaves no children behind, improvements to K to 12 and First Nations education, and post-secondary initiatives.
- Expansion of health and wellness, and mental wellness initiatives.
- Making life more affordable by freezing power rates.
- Addressing housing and land development, investing in the Yukon’s communities, and creating safe communities.
You can read the Yukon Party’s Action for a Change plan here.
The 2021 territorial general election will be held on Monday, April 12.
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For further information, please contact:
Tim Kucharuk
Media Director
(867) 689-7874
