Stanton Territorial Hospital added ten new frontline employees to its workforce in the last quarter of 2021, according to a spokesperson for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority (NTHSSA).
On Jan. 31, NTHSSA spokesperson David Maguire confirmed that of the 20 frontline workers hired by the territory between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021, ten went to Stanton.
These figures include indeterminate and relief positions, but not term or casual short-term positions.
The Union of Northern Workers, which represents GNWT employees at Stanton via its Local 11, estimates it has about 420 members at the facility.
The GNWT has about 1,200 frontline workers in indeterminate, term and relief positions across its entire healthcare system.
Despite these new hires, as of Jan. 19 Stanton was operating at a baseline-vacancy rate for nursing positions of about 22 per cent, the same rate as at the beginning of last December.
The NTHSSA also had to delay the return to full services in Stanton’s obstetrics unit due to a lack of staff. Full services will not resume until at least April 1.
“While we have been successful in staffing to date we do not have the resources to re-open the unit fully for planned births, especially given that the potential for staff to be impacted by COVID isolation,” a Jan. 26 statement from the NTHSSA reads.
The statement also said that 20 out of 55 parents who were scheduled to give birth at the hospital between Feb. 22 and March 31 would have to be transferred to Edmonton.