Over the last few months staffing issues have forced the Northern Haida Gwaii Hospital to shut down several times.
The Northern Haida Gwaii Hospital, located in Masset, is critical to the health and well-being of the Haida people. The only other hospital on the island is located 100 kilometres away, in Skidegate. For some people, the hour-long drive could be the difference between life and death, so it’s critical that Northern Health finds a solution.
Northern Health has been doing work to mitigate disruptions, said northwest senior operations officer for Northern Health Cormac Hikisch.
“There’s a lot of work going on each and every day to avoid and reduce the risks of service reductions. We do many, many different things, over the course of days and weeks and months, whether that’s, encouraging and arranging for local physicians to come in or if local medical staff can cover shifts for our nursing staff, and many other efforts when there is a service interruption.”
From Aug. 20-Sept. 5 there were six service disruptions, however there have been none since. While problems still persist, there have been significantly fewer disruptions this year, said Hikisch.
“We’re near the end of September and things have been quite stable. There has been marked improvement from this time last year. There have been about a dozen emergency service interruptions in 2025 compared to 70 in 2024, marking a significant improvement.”
