With no timeline for fix, Yukon Hospital Corp. apologizes for ongoing cancelled surgeries

The Yukon Hospital Corporation is apologizing for the “disruption and uncertainty” caused by an ongoing issue with cleaning surgical equipment that has led to cancelled surgeries and procedures all week at the Whitehorse General Hospital. 

“We acknowledge the impact to you and your loved ones, and we sincerely apologize for the disruption and uncertainty,” reads a Facebook post on the morning of Feb. 7. 

With no timeline for a resolution, as noted in the Feb. 7 update from the hospital corporation on Facebook, it remains unclear when the cancellations will end. 

In the meantime, the hospital has partnered with the Vancouver General Hospital to help with reprocessing and sterilizing gear off site, according to an update at 4:30 p.m. Staff discovered residue left behind on tools after cleaning on Jan. 31, which prompted the cancellations all week and potentially into the future. 

“Planned surgical procedures required for cancer diagnosis and treatment are being prioritized. Other additional procedures that can be provided are being prioritized based on inventory and consideration for preserving our capacity to respond to emergencies,” reads the update.

Patients who previously underwent surgery shouldn’t be concerned given tools can’t be used until they meet certain standards, per hospital communications.

For at least the fifth day, Whitehorse General Hospital is cancelling planned surgeries and procedures due to a problem with surgical instrument sterilization. Non-emergency surgeries and procedures set for Feb. 3-7 have been confirmed cancelled, and affected patients are being notified by the operating room scheduling team, according to Yukon Hospital Corporation communications.

A spokesperson for the corporation said scopes are going ahead while teams look ahead to planning for next week and any potential impacts to the surgical scheduling.

“The goal is maintain emergency capacity and restore some services,” the spokesperson said.

“Behind the scenes, work continues to systematically troubleshoot and test (looking to repeat good outcomes) as well as monitor equipment performance to identify the cause and restore full capacity.”

The cause of the problem has not been determined.

Approximately 25 to 30 surgeries and procedures are being cancelled daily as a consequence. The hospital corporation did not respond by publication with the total number of people on the waitlist for surgery. 

The Yukon opposition parties aren’t buying cabinet communications’ argument that there isn’t a lack of government funding for the Yukon Hospital Corporation to have prevented an ongoing issue with cleaning surgical equipment at the hospital. 

Yukon NDP Leader Kate White jumped to the assumption that it had to be a funding issue — otherwise there would be some kind of a contingency like a second sterilization system or a backup plan in place.  

“Cancelling 30 appointments a day for surgery is an indication that there’s not adequate amounts of equipment to be able to perform the required surgeries,” White said by phone on Feb. 5.   

White criticized the Yukon Liberal Party government’s silence on the matter. 

Health Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee and Yukon Hospital Corporation CEO Tiffancy Boyd weren’t made available for interview with the News for this story. The hospital corporation did not respond to emailed questions but made a Facebook post at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 7 with an update. 

The update notes progress has been made to provide safe instrumentation for scheduled scope (colonoscopy and gastroscopy) procedures. The hospital has been able to add to its supply of clean tools for emergencies, per the update.

Yukon government cabinet communications said there is no clear evidence of a funding failure.  

The hospital corporation takes the lead on communications given its independence from the government, per cabinet communications. It is the hospital’s equipment, operations and responsibility to ensure its equipment is sterilized. 

“As it stands, YHC has identified this as a technical and operational issue within the sterilization process, and they are working hard to resolve it. If there were broader systemic factors at play — including funding pressures — we would work with YHC to understand them, but we have no indication at this point that that’s the case,” cabinet comms said by email on Feb. 5.  

Cabinet communications maintains operations and maintenance funding has gone up by 77.2 per cent since 2018-19 and provided a list of other spending on physicians working at the hospital, completing the new emergency department in 2018 and the mental health unit, or secure medical unit, under construction, and opening the bilingual health centre, the walk-in clinic and the midwifery clinic. 

“It is worth noting that the newly passed Health Authority Act, expands ‘public accountability’ across health care services in the Yukon,” reads a follow-up email from the cabinet communications director. The work to carry out the legislation remains in the early stages. 

Yukon Party health critic and MLA for Lake Laberge Brad Cathers said the “buck stops” with the minister. 

He consistently refers to a third-party report done on hospital spending that he says found the hospital suffered from a “chronic cash flow and operating shortfall” that led to mismanaging money intended for the mental health unit.  

Cathers cited last year when the hospital imposed “caps and cuts” on tests such as mammography, MRI and CT scans, ultrasound and X rays. 

He said the Yukon government has been sitting on a report from “no later than January 2019” about expanding surgical services.  

“It’s certainly possible that if there were redundancies in that through additional equipment as part of that project, that we might have been able to avoid this current disruption,” Cathers said. 

“The wait time list for surgeries overall would be shorter, and this type of disruption would not be causing such a critical problem.” 

The News reported in January that a surgical tower expansion of the hospital is being planned. The news came as one of two of the hospital’s operating room surgeons announced his departure from the territory due to systemic underfunding for surgical services.

Contact Dana Hatherly at [email protected]