Whitehorse hospital to adopt temporary ER system

Whitehorse General Hospital is starting a temporary "two-stream" triage system in its emergency room this summer to help Yukoners deal with a shortage of family doctors in the territory.

The number of patients going to the hospital's emergency room has spiked in recent months, after several Whitehorse walk-in clinics closing their doors.

So starting in July, patients who arrive at the hospital on weekdays between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. will be separated into two streams, spokesperson Val Pike told CBC News.

"One stream will deal with emergency patients, and the other will be more of like a clinical kind of nature you know, sore throats, headaches stuff that you would normally go to the doctor for," Pike said Thursday.

Patients in the latter stream would also include those who are concerned about symptoms they have that may be related to serious diseases such as cancer, Pike said.

Hospital officials are asking doctors who currently work occasional shifts in the emergency department to work more shifts.

"It will help address the increased pressures that we're seeing, mostly due to the fact that there's lots of Yukoners who don't have family physicians and they have nowhere else to go for those non-emergency medical situations," Pike said.

More doctors coming this fall

Pike said the hospital will evaluate the triage system on a monthly basis, but it is meant to last only a few months.

"We're hoping by the fall, with the addition of three new family practice physicians moving to Whitehorse, we'll only have to have this in place for a few months and then the pressure will be relieved with new doctors moving to town," she said.

The Yukon Medical Association has said it hopes the temporary triage system will reduce wait times and ensure patients get the attention they need.

But Dr. Rao Tadepalli, the association's president, said a long-term solution is still needed for Yukon's doctor shortage.

The association has said one factor behind the current doctor shortageis the Yukon government's decision this year todiscontinue its special licence program for foreign-trained doctors.

Tadepalli said he hopes ongoing talks with the Yukon government will lead to improvements in attracting more family doctors to the territory.