Dawson City promised new health care facility

Photo by Dan Davidson

Consultation with local health care professionals and geotech work on a proposed site will be the first stages of a two-phase project announced by Health Minister Brad Cathers and Klondike MLA Steve Nordick in front of the Dawson City Health Centre over the noon hour on June 27.

Nordick announced the government’s intention to replace Dawson’s aging health care facility as phase one of the project, to be followed immediately by the replacement of the MacDonald Lodge Seniors Home.

“Originally, we had committed to replacing MacDonald Lodge,“ Cathers said, referring to promises made during the last territorial election.

“Today, we are pleased to announce that the Yukon government will build a new health centre in Dawson City and a new care facility to replace MacDonald Lodge,“

“This is the first time that the government has committed to replacing not only MacDonald Lodge but the health care facility,“ Cathers said.

“The Department of Health and Social Services will be contacting Dawson health care professionals shortly to discuss plans for the new health centre, as well as working with them to enhance services provided to residents of Dawson,“ he added.

Consultations actually began in a meeting with health care staff held just prior to the press conference, though Cathers indicated that some planning had already been done at the the department level.

Klondike MLA Steve Nordick said he was very pleased with today’s announcement.

“A new health centre and new care facility are both very important to my constituents and my community. I am pleased that my colleagues are supporting this important step in addressing the health and long-term care needs of Dawson City,“ Nordick said.

Cathers indicated that the Health Care Centre project had been added to the original election commitment, and changed to the first phase as a result of input from Dawsonites as filtered through Nordick.

This appears to be a vastly different project than the one announced by Premier Fentie during a meeting here in 2003 and subsequently presented to the community as a set of design and elevation plans during former MLA Peter Jenkins’ tenure as Minister of Health.

In that project, termed a “multi-level health care facility,“ the nursing station and the lodge would have been combined into a single two-storey structure which would have included Emergency Medical Services and would have been heavily dependent on the functioning of a pair of elevators.

This proposal was roundly condemned by doctors, nurses and paramedics in town, who indicated that they had had little input in the design.

Apparently that mistake will not be repeated with the present project.

Cathers indicated that there was no intention to merge the facilities, though there might be easier access between them in the new designs.

Presently the two buildings are about a block apart, but their replacements would probably both be located, if the geotech work proves satisfactory, on a plot of YTG owned land that sits behind the current Health Care Centre and behind the Dawson City Museum.

Much of this area is currently a community playground.

There are other YTG properties in the town that could prove to be satisfactory if this land is not, Cathers said.

Cathers had no estimate of costs at this time. The last project was to have been between $11 million and $14 million, but that was four years ago and costs have increased, as the government’s health care centre project in Watson Lake has shown.

Construction for phase one of the project is scheduled to begin in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, with phase two to follow immediately thereafter.
Completion dates are not known yet.

Cathers conceded that staffing issues are as critical as facilities issues when it comes to designing enhanced medical services for the years to come and said that these issues would be part of the planning discussions.