Health centre in Ross River, Yukon, will be unstaffed for more than a week

The health centre in Ross River, Yukon, won’t have a nurse available on site for more than a week starting on Wednesday, and services at the centre will be reduced through most of July.

In a notice, health officials say the facility won’t have a nurse available from Wednesday at 8 a.m. until July 10 at 4:30 p.m.

Then, from July 11 to July 28, there will be one nurse available at the health centre before full services resume on the morning of July 29. The centre is normally staffed by two primary health care nurses.

In the meantime, a primary care paramedic will be stationed in Ross River from July 1 to 18, to respond to emergencies.

Anybody with non-emergency health issues is advised to call the 24-hour Yukon Health Line at 811.

A health department spokesperson said in an email that the service reduction in Ross River is due to a nursing shortage, “which reflects the broader challenges in recruiting health care professionals both in the Yukon and across Canada.”

“We are actively recruiting health professionals and exploring new staffing models to support long-term stability in Ross River and other rural areas,” they wrote.

The Yukon government has been grappling with staff shortages in health care for a while now, with some health centres closing for periods, and some surgeries delayed at the Whitehorse hospital.

The government released its Health Human Resources Strategy in 2023, a plan for tackling the shortage of health-care workers.

Some of its initiatives aim to improve workplace culture, streamline the integration of new workers and to create more training opportunities in the Yukon.

This article is republished from RCI.