The Yukon NDP is sounding the alarm about what it says could be the collapse of a program at Whitehorse General Hospital that provides care to inpatients.

The New Democrats are warning that coming changes to the program have little support among doctors.

Currently, there is an informal hospitalist program where doctors form a three-person team to provide care for inpatients at the hospital.

This evolved out of a doctor-of-the-day system. Under it, patients were either cared for by their family doctor during hospital stays, or a designated physician for those unattached to a primary care provider.

Plans are now in the works to formalize this system. The hospital plans to hire seven new hospitalist doctors to staff it.

But the New Democrats say they are switching to an hourly pay model they say will compensate those doctors hourly instead of on a fee-for-service basis – itself a widely criticized system that was recently abandoned in B.C. – which will ultimately result in a pay cut.

“(The hospitalist program) has proven to be better for patients, doctors, and hospital staff — everyone agrees that it should continue — but now the program is heading toward collapse in January because this government is proposing what would represent a 10- to 15-per-cent pay cut to these valuable professionals,” NDP Leader Kate White told the legislature Monday.

The alternative, recently adopted in B.C., is to pay doctors for the complexity of care provided and time spent with patients, instead of per patient visit in a fee-for-service system or with an hourly rate.

Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee responded to White’s comments, telling reporters, “I fully expect to have individuals who are interested” in the positions.

She also told the legislature officials have contingency plans in place should the hiring push not be immediately successful. The job posting is expected to go out within a week.

“It is our understanding that the medical staff at Whitehorse General have agreed that, come January, should there not be a sufficient number of physicians that we have by then been contracted to provide, the current system will continue short-term,” McPhee said.

Rao Tadepalli, an ER doctor at the hospital, was a bit less hopeful, and took to X to express his doubts.

In a Nov. 4 tweet, the former Yukon Medical Association president said health care in the Yukon is “on the downslide and crashing,” and that no contract takers for hospitalists will affect inpatient and ICU care.

McPhee was asked on Tuesday about Tadepalli’s tweet. She would not comment.

“I just wouldn’t do that,” she said. “I can also indicate that some of the facts in that tweet are incorrect.”

Tadepalli followed it up with another tweet on Wednesday.

“Yukon Health Care in distress. With no takers for walk-in or Hospitalists, increasing burden of existing Family Doctors will cause burnout,” the tweet reads.

“No beds, overcrowded ER, Canceled ORs. Patients with no family doctor increasing.”

McPhee was asked whether any of the doctors currently working as hospitalists plan on continuing in that role as the system becomes formalized.

She could not confirm that they would.

“I’m not going to speak on their behalf,” McPhee said. “Many of the doctors that currently work through the hospitalist program have other practices as well, so they split their time.”

White doesn’t think they will get enough applicants.

The hospitalists employed in the Yukon have more responsibility than in many of the provinces due to the remote nature of the Yukon and the lack of easy access to support from specialists, White added.

This needs to be accounted for in these doctors’ pay, the NDP leader said.

“The hospitalist program will collapse in January unless an agreement can be reached to safely and sustainably staff the program, but instead of making a competitive offer, this government is slashing hospitalist doctors’ pay,” White told the legislature.

Asked by reporters what the offered pay will be for these positions, McPhee responded that the pay for doctors in the Yukon is adequate.

“I can tell you that we compensate physicians very well here compared to other jurisdictions in Canada, and certainly one of the highest, and that will be maintained,” she said.