The NWT Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA) has laid out contingency plans to keep its emergency department open at Stanton Territorial Hospital, including a worst-case-scenario option.
Atop its list is possibly making physicians work 12-hour shifts, rather than a standard eight hours.
"NTHSSA acknowledges that this is not an ideal or sustainable long-term solution, but it is a necessary short-term mitigation measure to ensure continuity of care during this period," the authority stated in a June 4 news release.
Another option the authority says it is considering is transferring one or more physicians who work in lower-volume emergency departments, like those in Inuvik or Hay River. It could also add more family physicians.
The authority might also move staff such as nurses or paramedics from other service areas, which could lead to a service reduction in other programs, the authority notes.
"As a last resort, NTHSSA would weigh the impact of recalling staff from leave," the authority adds.
A new staffing model for Stanton Territorial HospitalSA国际影视传媒檚 emergency department is set to begin in July. It is meant to allow for staffing of the daily eight-hour period of double physician coverage with a fully-credentialed physician, according to Krystal Pidborochynski, communications director for the authority.
For the hospital's emergency department, its physician schedule is designed to include 7.2 full-time equivalents of emergency department-credentialed physicians.
Currently, Pidborochynski said that of the roughly four full-time equivalents of emergency room physicians staffing the department SA国际影视传媒� which is supplemented by locum physicians SA国际影视传媒� that work is performed by six people who spend portions of their contracted hours there.
