WATSON LAKE HOSPITAL PROPOSAL MUST BE RECONSIDERED
NDP leader Todd Hardy supports the staff at the Watson Lake Health Centre in urging the government to reconsider its plan to turn their facility into a hospital.
"The NDP has said all along the government did not make a very strong case a hospital was needed, wanted or even sustainable there," Hardy says. "And now the nurses and other people who work at the centre are saying this is not the best or most cost-effective way to deliver health care to community residents."
In their submission to the Yukon government dated December 2008, health centre staff say ‘the narrow acute care focus of a hospital is outdated and not sustainable’ and ‘the needs of the people can be better met at significantly less cost to the people’ in other ways they have already implemented.
The staff goes on to say there is evidence all over the territory the health-care needs of rural Yukoners are being met using the primary health-care model. To recruit and retain staff, however, the communities need the government’s help in providing reliable and flexible day care, high quality public education and opportunities for spousal employment.
"The government did not properly consult with stakeholders or properly do its homework because it was embarrassed by how long this project was taking and how much money it was costing," Hardy adds. "It rushed into this decision and that’s why it is getting so little support."
Hardy also supports the Yukon Employees’ Union, which argues in an open letter to Premier Dennis Fentie dated January 14 that transferring the Watson Lake centre to the Yukon Hospital Corporation raises a number of critical questions about existing collective agreements, including job security, pensions, seniority, shift scheduling and other negotiated rights of union members.
"The government is not acting responsibility if it follows through on its plan to convert the Watson Lake centre into a hospital," Hardy adds. "As the people who work there say in their submission, the government should revisit its expensive and potentially disruptive and divisive plan."