Liberals leave Yukoners waiting on cancelled surgeries, with no end in sight
February 6, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025
WHITEHORSE, YT — Yukoners are looking to the Liberal government for answers amid mounting surgery cancellations at Whitehorse General Hospital (WGH), according to Yukon NDP Leader Kate White.
WGH has cancelled up to 30 scheduled surgeries per day for four days as of Thursday, Feb. 6, because the hospital can’t clean surgical equipment fast enough, according to the Yukon Hospital Corporation (YHC).
“The Liberals need to tell Yukoners what went wrong, when they’ll fix it, and how they’ll prevent this from happening again,” Yukon NDP Leader Kate White said.
Healthcare workers on Friday, Jan. 31, spotted a breakdown in WGH’s sterilization process for surgical equipment known as medical device reprocessing, or MDR.
YHC has no timelines for when scheduled surgeries will resume at WGH. Hospital surgeons have enough clean equipment for emergency surgeries only, while healthcare workers have restored some endoscope procedures.
“The Liberals don’t have a backup plan. And the Liberals haven’t said how much longer they can guarantee emergency surgeries at WGH if this keeps up,” White said.
“Yukoners can’t get the surgeries they need because the Liberals didn’t fund YHC enough for the corporation to buy backup equipment, and because the Liberals failed to plan ahead for exactly this scenario,” White continued.
“This looks like a funding issue. Clearly, healthcare is not a priority for the Liberals when their government can’t or won’t pay for backup sterilization equipment.”
This week’s surgery cancellations come less than two months after a Yukon Government press release praised the Liberals for funding “system improvements and recent optimization” at WGH, including more MDR technicians.