Better Care for the North, Now - Northern Health Care Matters

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Tell governments to support changes that will fix the Northern health care crisis.

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Who we are

We are advocates for northern health care who know there is a better way to do things. We represent health care workers and their communities. This campaign is sponsored by the Northern Territories Federation of Labour, which advocates for and protects workers’ rights in the North West Territories and Nunavut.

We know health care isn’t working for the North.

Many Northern communities experience short staffing and medical centre care closures. People have to leave home and  travel hundreds of kilometres to get help. Health care workers struggle  with burnout and high turnover means patients rarely seem the same professional twice.

These challenges impact everyone — but there are solutions and things can change. Better care is possible.

Health care workers have ideas to improve the care they can provide that will actually reduce costs, but don’t feel government is listening to them.

Here’s what we can do, together.

Health care workers have made-in-the-North solutions that will improve patient care and cut costs for governments. Here’s what they would do.

  1. Make it faster and easier to connect Northerners with health care jobs. Common sense improvements like improving local training and recruitment, alongside making it easier and faster for workers to apply for jobs, will encourage employment and keep promising candidates in the North.
  2. Use every worker to make the health care system stronger. Temporary health care workers help — but by making better use of them and by providing better flexibility, training, and wages to local and permanent workers, care will improve and costs will go down.
  3. Give health care workers a seat at the table. Northern health care workers understand the crisis and are experts on delivering care in the North. Government needs to listen to their recommendations and work collaboratively with them to establish minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.

Read more about solutions Northern health care workers solutions.


Take Action

Tell governments to work together to fix the northern health care crisis

Health care professionals are sounding the alarm, and we need to listen to them. The short-staffed health care system is leaving northerners without care.

Instead of spending millions on temporary contract workers from the south, we want our governments to invest in permanent, public solutions, like training northerners to provide health care. On hiring, northern governments aren’t moving fast enough to fill the gaps and need more modern hiring practices.

Moving forward Canada’s reconciliation with Indigenous people means investing in northern health care. If we mobilize enough people, we can force elected officials to act.

Add your name now to join our campaign: