Emails reveal forecast impacts, 'dire' staff concerns during Yukon hospital cuts last year

The Yukon Hospital Corporation expected its sweeping service cuts last year would double wait times for some MRIs and CT scans, exacerbate surgery waitlists and risk nurse burnout.

Internal documents reveal surgeons were caught by surprise. They accused officials of risking the safety of Yukoners for a balanced budget.

The documents, released to CBC through an access to information request, lay out the hospital corporation's serious cash-flow concerns.

In late October, it told the Yukon government's Department of Health and Social Services it was tracking toward a year-end deficit of $6 million. 

Senior staff prepared a list of planned "cost containment measures" to reduce the deficit to $4.6 million. 

They said they were imposing a hiring freeze, raising cafeteria prices and limiting travel and conference spending.  

In the surgical services department, the corporation slashed elective surgeries by a third, by taking operating rooms temporarily out of service from mid December.

In the medical imaging department, it capped the number of non-urgent imaging appointments and dropped from two MRI technologists to one.

The documents show the corporation expected to save $625,000 on agency nurses across the two departments.

However, it acknowledged wait times would grow, there'd be an increased risk of nurse burnout, and more people might face medical emergencies. 

While the service reduction was in place, it said the waitlist for scopes would increase by 39 people a month, the waitlist for orthopaedic services by 17 people a month and the general surgery waitlist by 15 people a month.

In the medical imaging department, it forecast people would be waiting three times longer for non-urgent CT scans — 18 months instead of six months.

It predicted people would be waiting twice as long for MRIs — pushing semi-urgent cases to five months, and non-urgent cases to 2 years.

For mammograms, it expected the minimum wait time would grow from 11 months to 14 months.