Yukon government says moving palliative care residents was about 'room optimization'

The Yukon government says its decision to move palliative care residents to a new unit within Whitehorse's Whistle Bend Place is all about "room optimization."

The move has drawn criticism from some families and from opposition politicians, who say the decision was rushed and that it makes little sense.

Residents at the Wind River Hospice House were told in early July that they'd be moving to another part of the long term care home, to free up space for other residents who need beds but are not in palliative care.

Brigitte Poirier, acting assistant deputy minister with the health department, says it's because the Whitehorse hospital was dealing with more people in acute care while there were empty beds at the hospice house.

"So having Yukoners being admitted in the emergency department when having vacant rooms in other parts of the system, really required thorough thinking or rethinking."

"So that was really the catalyst."

As a result, the palliative care program has moved to another, smaller area at Whistle Bend Place.

Poirier admits that the move happened on "very short notice indeed."

"That was difficult for many people, for sure. That's why we really deployed more resources to really support that move, really help people organize, and make sure that they had everything in place so that they could move in a very seamless way from one area to the other," she said.

"People were involved as much as they wished to be involved in the move, but really the Yukon government did that work for them."

'Poor solution'

Susie Ann Bartsch is among those who have criticized the government's decision. Her husband lived at Wind River Hospice House for seven weeks before he died in early 2023, and Bartsch said his final weeks were "made way less terrible by the fact that that facility exists."

She said the hospice facility was designed especially for end-of-life care, and so moving those residents somewhere else is a "poor solution."

"It puts the staff and the patients at this disadvantage, that had already been so well thought-out," she said.

Yukon NDP Leader Kate White has also spoken out, saying she was "appalled" by the move, and found it "incomprehensible." She says the new area for hospice residents wasn't designed or built for palliative care.

"It's not for end-of-life. So it doesn't have the built-in oxygen, it doesn't have the built-in suction, it doesn't have the lifts, and it certainly doesn't have the privacy," White said.

Poirier, however, insists that the new unit is well-equipped and that maintaining people's privacy is a priority.

"Whatever is required for the end of life care for those individuals, it is available in the new space," she said.

She said that staff were working to make the atmosphere similar to what it was at Wind River Hospice.

"Now we're really looking at really refining that environment, to really find an atmosphere that is really, really suited for end-of-life care."

Poirier says it's hard to say whether the change is a permanent one at Whistle Bend Place, as it depends on what kind of rooms are most needed down the road.

"Will it change in the future? It's possible It's hard to predict exactly where things are going to go."