Latest news with #DerekBryant
CBC
06-02-2025
- Health
- CBC
Possible equipment failure causing surgery cancellations at Whitehorse General Hospital
Whitehorse General Hospital has cancelled about 75 surgeries over the past three days. The Yukon Hospital Corporation announced that all scheduled surgeries on Monday and Tuesday were cancelled, because staff were unable to properly clean surgical instruments. Some surgeries were cancelled again on Wednesday, while staff continue working to resolve the issue. In a statement on social media, Yukon Hospitals says staff discovered residue on surgical instruments after they were cleaned. It says staff are conducting a "systematic review" to determine why this happened. Yukon Medical Association president, Dr. Derek Bryant, says Yukon physicians were notified of the issue on Friday in a statement from the Yukon Hospital Corporation. "There was an equipment failure where they were no longer able to clean and sterilize medical equipment," Bryant said. "The statement communicated that this was due to a malfunctioning water softener." Yukon Hospitals did not confirm to CBC News that a water softener was the cause. In its statement on social media, it says the precise cause remains unknown. Yukon Hospitals says there are no concerns for patients who underwent surgery before the issue appeared. Whitehorse General made the decision to cancel scheduled surgeries in order to conserve resources for emergencies. Jessica Apolloni, a spokesperson for the corporation says there are currently sterile instrument kits set aside for emergency surgeries. Despite the ongoing issues, certain procedures went ahead as scheduled on Wednesday, after staff were able to successfully sterilize scopes, Apolloni said. However, there is no timeline for when the situation will be fully resolved. Updated surgical infrastructure Yukoners whose surgeries were cancelled now have to wait for them to be rescheduled, says Bryant. "Their surgeries would not be taken off of the waitlist and so there may be a backlog as a result of the cancellations," Bryant said. Some patients whose surgeries were postponed may have already been waiting months or over a year, depending on the procedure, says Bryant. He says this problem emphasizes the need for updated surgical infrastructure at the hospital. "I think that's understood to be a necessity going forward, with our increasing population and our increasing demand for surgeries," Bryant said. Updating surgical infrastructure could involve adding more hospital beds and more operating rooms. "We likely need four operating rooms to be able to increase our surgical capacity to match the needs of Yukoners," Bryant said. However, he expects the hospital will need funding from both the territorial and federal governments to make these upgrades a reality. Bryant says this situation is a challenging one for surgeons.
CBC
28-01-2025
- Health
- CBC
Doctors closing, moving practice because of infrastructure needs, says Yukon Medical Association
The president of the Yukon Medical Association says he's noticed a "concerning trend" lately, with some physicians closing up or moving their practices out of the territory. "In many cases patients of the closed practices were not able to find a new physician," said Dr. Derek Bryant. "What we're seeing is there's some very significant pressures and challenges to primary care and practice in the Yukon right now that are potentially leading to these closures and may continue to [cause] difficulty accessing a physician." Bryant says that in the past 18 months, four medical practices have closed in the territory. He says part of the issue is an "absence of infrastructure" in the territory. Bryant said a lack of available office space was behind the decision by two family physicians at the Whitehorse Medical Services clinic to close up practice this spring. The clinic is closing its doors and Dr. Zale Apramian and Dr. Lia Johnson announced they wouldn't be relocating their practice like their colleagues at Whitehorse Medical Services but will instead continue to work in the health care field in a different capacity through the Whitehorse Hospital. In a letter to their colleagues last week, Johnson and Apramian said the decision to close their practice did not come lightly, and "reflects a combination of professional and personal considerations." "It is challenging to work within a system with insufficient support for family medicine," they wrote, citing the need to expand health-care infrastructure to better support doctors. "In the absence of strong action by our health care administration, we fear that the territory will continue a pattern of sluggish recruitment and retention." Bryant also pointed to the recent decision by an orthopedic surgeon at the Yukon Surgical Clinic at the Whitehorse Hospital to move his practice to B.C., which Bryant says came from "challenges with the surgical capacity at the [Whitehorse] hospital." In a letter to his colleagues on Jan. 18, Dr. Adam McIntyre wrote that, "systemic under-funding of the orthopedic service has forced me to make the difficult decision to move my practice to British Columbia." McIntyre also wrote that orthopedic service stopped accepting any new consult referrals in April of last year, citing concerns about maintaining standards of care in the absence of adequate resources. He also urged his colleagues to continue to advocate for more surgical services for Yukoners as the territory's population continues to grow. "The territory needs more robust support for patients and health-care workers," he wrote. "Prioritizing more operating rooms [ORs], more surgical time, and eventually, a new hospital, if they are ever to meet the demand and standards of care for Yukon patients — something that Yukoners dearly deserve," he wrote. 'Correctable' problems, Bryant says Bryant said these doctors are closing or moving their practices because of "correctable" problems. "We've already seen some improvement. There's an increase in beds in the hospital which would have resulted in fewer cancellations for surgeries," he said. "What we would really need to see is an ongoing expansion in the number of beds so that we can keep up with our population and also an increase in the operating rooms." Yukon Health Minister Tracy Ann McPhee was not available for an interview. In a written statement to CBC News, she said her government is taking proactive steps to enhance orthopedic services in the territory. " The Yukon Government remains committed to improving surgical services and addressing long-standing challenges in health-care delivery," the statement reads. "Planning is already underway for a new surgical facility at Whitehorse General Hospital, and we are increasing funding for total joint procedures to improve access to orthopedic surgeries." Community health cooperatives According to Dr. Raymond Rupert, a Toronto-based family physician, community involvement is an essential part of stabilizing health care in any area. "The community has to get activated," said Rupert He cited examples in Saskatchewan and Quebec of "health care cooperatives, or collectives where communities have come together." "They might supply a building, a clinic, equipment, admin staff or something. Sometimes the community has to step in to help with the operation or administration of the clinic." Rupert said families using such a service might pay a small monthly fee which would be put back into the clinic to support staff salaries, or purchase equipment, or cover additional expenses. He said it's not just about bringing physicians into a community, but also keeping them there. "Because after they've done some ice-fishing for a couple seasons, they're kind of done," Rupert said. "So you've got to think a bit smarter and figure out how to really change their work environment."
