This is a joint news release between the Government of Yukon, Yukon Hospitals and Yukon Medical Association.
On National Physicians Day, the Government of Yukon is reporting on early results of increased efforts to recruit doctors.
Six physicians recently moved to the Yukon and are now supporting care across the health system, including Watson Lake primary care and community hospital, the Whitehorse hospital emergency department and inpatient care, anesthesia, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology.
This success is the result of the combined efforts of the Government of Yukon, Yukon Hospitals and the Yukon Medical Association to recruit doctors.
The Yukon is also doing targeted outreach in the United States. This work focuses on raising awareness of opportunities in the Yukon and providing clear information about licensing and available supports for physicians interested in practising in the territory.
The YukonDocs program is a recruitment hub for physicians. Through this program, physicians receive coordinated support, including navigation of licensing requirements and onboarding assistance. The Government of Yukon is increasing its investment in YukonDocs to build on the program’s success and strengthen coordinated recruitment efforts across the health system.
Strengthening the Yukon’s health system requires coordinated actions, including training new family doctors locally through the family medicine residency program, collaborating with regulatory partners to streamline licensing, reducing administrative burden and improving leadership and clinical supports for acute care physicians.
We are taking action to recruit doctors and other health professionals. While there is much more work to be done, we are pleased to report success with six new doctors working in the Yukon.
Collaboration with YukonDocs, the medical community and our system partners has been critical in maintaining access to care for Yukoners. Together, we’ve advanced recruitment efforts aligned with the broader territorial strategy to support short- and longer-term physician coverage for acute care services, decrease administrative burden related to billing processes and build improved support structures for our medical teams. Continued focus on recruitment and sustainable workforce efforts are essential as need, demand and complexity continues to grow.
We are delighted to welcome our new colleagues to the territory and value the progress being made to strengthen our medical community. This growth in capacity will have real, tangible impacts on the care Yukoners receive, enabling more reliable and timely access to essential health services. By working collaboratively with our health system partners to coordinate recruitment efforts, we can continue taking practical steps to help build a stable and sustainable health system for the long term.
-
The Government of Yukon's support for the YukonDocs program includes directing more support to strengthen physician recruitment across the territory. As part of this expansion, targeted outreach is focused on the United States, where many physicians are trained in systems comparable to Canada’s.
-
Ongoing efforts are focused on strengthening access to primary care as well as emergency, rural, hospital and specialized services.
-
Recruitment efforts are coordinated with health system partners.
-
Recruitment efforts are aligned with health system priorities to strengthen access to care across communities and service areas.
Tim Kucharuk
Press secretary, Cabinet Communications
867-335-2419
[email protected]
Nigel Allan
Communications, Health and Social Services
867-332-9576
[email protected]
Dylan MacNeil
Communications, Yukon Hospitals
[email protected]
Katrina Fillmore
Chief Executive Officer, Yukon Medical Association
867-333-3694
[email protected]