The Yukon government and official Opposition continue to disagree on whether reduced hospital services occurred at the Whitehorse General Hospital in November and December 2023.

Yukon Party health critic Brad Cathers raised the issue again Wednesday in question period .

“(Tuesday) in question period and in comments to the media, the minister of Health and Social Services claimed that the Yukon Hospital Corporation was able to avoid any disruptions or reductions of services because of funding provided by the government in December. That, quite frankly, is blatantly incorrect,” Cathers said.

The minister in question, Tracy Anne-McPhee, responded, “The cost containment measures put in place did not result in significant service reductions during this period or have a lasting impact on wait times.”

Cathers then brought up a letter that has been at the crux of the matter.

“Here is what 14 local doctors and surgeons said in a letter to the minister on November 20, 2023: ‘Reduction of services has already been rolled out and staffing contracts have already been cancelled, with scheduled OR capacity already reduced.’

“That letter also says that “… this reduction in surgical services has already been implemented . …’

“Why is the minister trying to rewrite history and claim that there were no service reductions at our hospitals when there so clearly were service reductions?” Cathers asked.

McPhee replied, “Most wait times have remained neutral, and the number of surgeries and imaging exams provided by the hospital have increased year over year.

“The number of medical imaging exams overall is projected to have increased in 2023-24 by 14 per cent over the year before. The number of surgical procedures is projected to be six per cent higher than last year,” the minister said.

“Plans were activated in the fall of 2023 to resume normal services at the hospital on November 29, 2023, other than the usual seasonal service slowdown that is predicted over Christmas.”

Cathers replied, “It seems that yet again the minister of Health isn’t letting the facts get in the way of her talking points on this issue. Throughout last fall, multiple media reports that cited the hospital corporation’s media spokesperson and multiple leaked documents from the hospital all showed that cuts and caps on medical imaging began in early November.”

After objecting to Cather’s term “leaked documents”, McPhee broke down additional funding provided to the hospital corporation.

“On December 1, 2023, our government announced the provision of additional funding to the Yukon Hospital Corporation to address immediate pressures that were impacting surgeries and medical imaging.

“On February 16, 2024, the department provided $6.5 million in increased funding that was received the week of February 19, 2024.”

Of that, “ $5.2 million was to address the operation and maintenance deficit at the hospital; $1 million was to address capital maintenance; $300,000 was for breast cancer screenings; and $25,000 was with respect to loan servicing.”

Cathers told reporters after question period, “In the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to the report done by Ernst and Young, they found that the hospital was so short of money, that they diverted over $7 million in capital, and that if they hadn’t done that, they would have been at risk of not even be able to cover payroll.

“Then, last fiscal year, the year that just wrapped up, the hospital began the year short $30 million it needed, in O&M funding. The government did provide that through top-up of a little over $17 million in the fall and a further $12.5 million in the (supplementary) budget that just passed here last week,” Cathers said.

“It’s also quite telling that after the minister has spent quite a bit of time insisting that they fully met the hospital’s needs in December, in question period today, she finally admitted that they didn’t provide the hospital with the millions of dollars they needed to cover the deficit until February of this year.

“Again, it’s been this pattern of this minister, of denying the facts, denying the facts, denying the facts. Even past the point when there’s been substantial evidence presented publicly of a problem.”

Speaking with McPhee late Wednesday afternoon, the Star asked her why there is such a discrepancy between what the Yukon Party is saying and what her department is countering with.

“I don’t actually think there is a discrepancy between what the department information that they’re giving me and that we’ve presented over to you about how quickly we responded to this particular situation,” she said.

“But I certainly think that the Yukon Party has been interested in trying to paint this in the worst possible light. And I think that’s unfortunate because I don’t think it serves Yukoners.”

Last Nov. 20, the doctors penned their letter, she noted.

“On the 24th, I was made aware of the concerns about the potential reduction of surgical services. No significant reductions were made at that time.

“By the 29th of November, the deputy minister had written back to the doctors to say, ‘we’re on it; we understand, we agree.”

McPhee said she sent a note to the hospital corporation Nov. 30 “to not implement any of those measures because we will work together with them.

“We knew that it was probably between $6 million and $7 million. The message that we sent to the hospital on Nov. 30 was to don’t do this.

“‘If you’ve reduced anything, put everything back and make it you as it was. Continue with the appointments, continue with people services, and we will help,’” she said.

On Dec. 1 (not Dec. 12, as stated Tuesday), the government announced it would be providing extra funds to the hospital corporation.

She was asked if there had been a reduction in services in November and December.

“There’s a possible reduction in November but not in December,” she said. “Because there is always a scheduled kind of slowdown over Christmas and because this kind of bumps into that, there seemed to be this idea that it was going to be extended.

“I think it was extended for one week because of the staffing issues of having both nurses and doctors available during that period of time,” the minister said.

“I’m told that there was no significant reduction in services, because this all played out the way it did.

“We should have known about it ahead of time. We’ve improved those relationships. We have weekly meetings now and weekly cash flow reports with respect to the hospital corp.”

When a section of the Nov. 20 letter from the 14 doctors and surgeons was brought to McPhee’s attention and she was asked for a response, McPhee replied, “There was a response.”

McPhee said the deputy minister, Tiffany Boyd, responded to the letter within a couple of days.

“I wish that I could explain for you in a satisfactory way what Mr. Cathers thinks. Mr. Cathers wants to tell one story and unfortunately, it clashes with the information that I have,” the minister said.

Regarding the actual numbers of services provided, McPhee said, “We just don’t have that kind of data because everything moves so quickly in the system.

“The hospital corporation is quite separate from the Department of Health and Social Services, so I wouldn’t have that information anyway. But they’ve indicated to me that initially those services had been increased, like certainly the medical imaging, and then they decreased to sort of back to normal levels.”

McPhee also outlined why Yukoners shouldn’t be worried about future reductions in service.

“Our emergency room has not closed, our hospital services have not ended in any way we have not stopped service in any way. Are the wait times increasing? Yes.

“Have they increased to the place where we are not necessarily thrilled about that? Absolutely.

“But we have a 12 per cent population growth. And so that is noticeable in our health care provision of services. We have an aging population.”

McPhee continued with pointing out the positives in the Yukon health care system.

“I think that we have competitive salaries and service fees for doctors. We have competitive salaries for nurses, we have a competitive bonus structure for nurses and we are continuing to work to make sure that we are staffing to our highest levels so that there won’t be future reductions in service.”

There’s also a program of between two and sometimes three or four orthopedic surgeons in Whitehorse working full- time and providing those services here, such as hip and knee replacements.

McPhee was asked if she believes the 2024-25 budget would be sufficient for Yukoners’ health care needs.

“I do not have a crystal ball,” she replied. “I’m confident that everybody has done their job and made the best possible estimates that we can at this time, and we work closely with the hospital, and they’ve provided us with this number of $110 million, which is an extraordinary amount of money and that is what’s in the budget this year to meet their needs.

“But I’m also aware that as the year unfolds, we might have increased chemo costs. We might have increased nursing costs. We might have another population boom. All of those things could affect the future.”

McPhee added core funding has been increased by $15 million over last year, from the $95 million in the 2023-24 estimated budget to the current $110 million.