Latest news with #YukonHospitalCorporation
CBC
3 days ago
- General
- CBC
Whitehorse hospital opens $33M mental health unit
The Whitehorse hospital says its new mental health unit is going to transform in-patient mental-health care. The grand opening of the Fireweed mental health unit was on Monday. The new unit will provide in-patient care for a maximum of 30 days to people with a mental health diagnosis. The renovation at the hospital took two years and cost nearly $33 million. The new unit replaces the secure medical unit, which was widely criticized for lacking basic safety features and failing to provide staff with violence prevention training. In her remarks at Monday's opening, health minister Tracy-Anne McPhee acknowledged that the secure medical unit — which was essentially eight rooms and a hallway — was not equipped to provide adequate care. "This new unit changes that," McPhee said. The new wing is shaped like a horseshoe, spanning 10,000 square feet with a communal kitchen, private outdoor smoking area, and healing room. There are eight private bedrooms, with capacity to expand to 12 beds later. There are also three seclusion rooms, which contain only a toilet and bed, adjacent to an observation room. "We know this unit won't solve every challenge, but it's a start," said Tiffany Boyd, Yukon Hospital Corporation CEO, at the grand opening. The new unit will be fully operational by July. The eight beds in the former secure medical unit will go back to general in-patient medical and surgical use. Mental health programming completely 'redesigned' The Fireweed unit has new security features lacking in the secure medical unit, said Kirsten Wilson, clinical care manager at the hospital. There are "code white" buttons on several walls for staff to signal when a patient is aggressive. Staff will also wear personal alarm systems. Most of the rooms have two exits and other lock-down features. Wilson said staff have also taken some additional online and in-person training in safety and de-escalation. The unit will be staffed by three nurses, a team lead and consultant psychiatrists. Stephanie Ralph, executive director of patient care, said an overhaul of mental health care is on the way as well.
CBC
6 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Whitehorse hospital making improvements after equipment sterilization problems
Water and steam quality are to blame for a months-long equipment sterilization issue at Whitehorse General Hospital that triggered the cancellations of nearly 150 surgeries and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. A report released Monday details a review of the issue that caused residue on surgical instruments from the end of January to early April. The 363-page report, written by third party contractors, provides over one hundred recommendations to improve hospital infrastructure. Tiffany Boyd, CEO of the Yukon Hospital Corporation, says three-quarters of those recommendations are already underway. "We wanted not only to resolve the issue in a very thorough and complex way to protect our community and our population for the future, but we wanted to build redundancy. Because we're a rural and remote site, having redundant capacity is really important," Boyd said. The Whitehorse hospital has been back to its full surgical capacity, and completing its own sterilization on site, since April 7. It uses reverse osmosis treated water in a final rinse of equipment to ensure instruments are properly clean. To plan for any future emergencies, the hospital has purchased extra sets of equipment and staff have developed a system to sterilize equipment off-site if necessary. It involves packaging the instruments, sending them to Vancouver where staff sterilize them, re-pack them in sterile packaging, and return the equipment to careful airline staff who ensure the instruments arrive back to Yukon intact. "That pathway now exists and we can use it anytime we need," Boyd said. The hospital is also working on implementing other recommendations, including installing a reverse osmosis system and ultrafiltration systems — two methods of treating water. The report also recommends installing new water softeners, discarding expired supplies, keeping the door to the sterile storage room closed and better marking clean and soiled supplies. In the two months of sterilization issues, the hospital cancelled 165 surgeries. Most of those, 135, were cataract surgeries because the small equipment is too fragile to be transported for sterilization offsite. Dr. Alex Kmet, the chief of medical staff with the Yukon hospital corporation, said the disruptions had a major impact on patients and doctors having to make those decisions. "Deciding and recognizing that you have to preserve equipment for a potential emergency, knowing that there's a person scheduled and then deciding 'is it OK for me to go ahead or not' that is a profound moral and ethical issue on the providers," he said. "I have so much respect for my colleagues who navigated that." Boyd said the issues cost about $500,000 total, with the money being spent on shipping instruments for offsite sterilization, buying more equipment and consulting fees. She said there will be further costs to implement the consultants' recommendations and improve their infrastructure, but the hospital corporation will work with "partners" to ensure cost isn't a barrier.
CBC
22-03-2025
- Health
- CBC
A week dominated by health care points to a looming showdown in Yukon politics
Yukon Party Leader Currie Dixon largely sidestepped an opportunity to defend his health critic on Thursday after the premier launched an attack on Brad Cathers's record leading the file. Speaking with reporters for the first time during the sitting, Premier Ranj Pillai fired back at the opposition, putting the spotlight on Cathers, who was the health and social services minister from 2006 to 2008. "It's hard for us to be in there, understanding the track record of Brad Cathers when it comes to being a health minister. All I could say is he turned that hospital into an absolute mess … it was a dumpster fire," Pillai said. "So when you hear 'this is the change we need,' we know that it would be more of the same with folks." The matter Pillai referred to involved the resignation of the Whitehorse hospital's board chair, Marny Ryder, in November 2006. Ryder would later speak out about strained communication between the board and the minister, capacity issues, funding and conflicts between doctors and the hospital's CEO. Following Ryder's comments, a group of doctors called for CEO Michael Aerberhardt to resign. The board of the Yukon Hospital Corporation supported Aeberhardt before eventually firing him in August 2007. When asked to comment on Cathers's legacy, Dixon said he was in university at the time. "It was over 20 years ago so I don't really recall his time as health minister, if I'm perfectly honest," he said. "But Brad has a long history in the legislature in a variety of portfolios and he's been a great colleague to work with." Pillai also invoked memories of the Dennis Fentie government following a week in the legislature that was dominated by discussions about healthcare, a key ballot box issue in this year's election, which must take place no later than Nov. 3. His Liberal government faced a barrage of questions from the Yukon Party about whether it would carry out the Official Opposition's proposals to headhunt U.S. doctors and form a task force aimed at reducing the administrative burden for family doctors. In both cases, the government countered that it was already working to recruit from abroad and has a joint committee with doctors to discuss cutting red tape. Pillai said his government has been focused on confronting challenges like the doctor shortage, building infrastructure and integrating First Nations governance into the education system. He challenged the Yukon Party to do more than criticize and present some policy alternatives. "What I see is a group of individuals in the opposition that have collectively sat in those seats for 103 years, that all seem like they're going to continue to be part of that caucus, and they're selling change," Pillai said. "So we'll wait and see. The 'everything's broken' narrative, I think Yukoners are tired of and that's what I've been hearing time and time again from the opposition." Dixon rejected Pillai's characterization, saying it's health professionals themselves who have said that the healthcare system is in crisis. He also trumpeted two Yukon Party motions that were passed unanimously by MLAs on opposition Wednesday, expressing hope that the government will act on them. While the wordings of both motions were amended on the floor, they still reflected the proposals presented by the Yukon Party this week. But on his party's criticism of the government, Dixon made no apologies, citing the opposition's job. "From time to time, we'll ask questions on behalf of constituents. From time to time, we will criticize government policy and from time to time, we'll raise our own plans or express our vision of what should be done instead," he said. "But naturally, the best time really for Yukoners to see two competing visions is an election. And that's when we release a platform."
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.
