The Yukon government is planning on opening a publicly funded bilingual clinic in Whitehorse next month, Health and Social Services Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee reiterated Wednesday.

November’s temporary location for the Constellation health centre has to be determined, however.

McPhee met with the media following Tuesday’s question period in the legislature. She addressed the walk-in clinic that was supposed to have been up and running by the past spring.

“In the spring, Yukon Government had supported a sort of a unique setup, to help with some setup costs and some administration costs for a walk-in clinic that would have been staffed by local physicians,” she said.

“Those doctors ultimately chose not to pursue that business model. So we were back at the drawing board.

“But I just want to be clear that the walk-in clinic or that kind of service will only provide walk-in type care for patients that might otherwise go to the hospital. It’s not really primary care; it won’t provide long-term care for individuals to be connected to a private doctor or to a family doctor.”

McPhee referred to “long-term planning going forward. And it is a very important long-term plan because it does envision polyclinics.”

Those facilities offer wrap-around services provided by social workers, nurse practitioners and physicians.

“It has been successful in other places with a larger population than this,” the minister said.

McPhee also mentioned the government’s new three-year services agreement with the Yukon Medical Association (YMA).

“That includes incentives for physicians to increase their patient load,” she said. “And the YMA president has described this as very competitive, and looks forward to having the tools that are in that agreement work towards recruitment of new physicians and keeping and retaining the physicians that we have.”

McPhee was asked if she can provide a date for the opening of a walk-in clinic in Whitehorse.

“No, I can’t do that, because we’re where – I hope it’s tomorrow,” she responded.

“But the truth of the matter is that we’re working on many options. As I’ve said, we’re talking to local medical practitioners and nurse practitioners to determine how that might fit into their business plan, and how we can support that.”

As to whether she favours private clinics, McPhee said, “Absolutely. We’re talking about a clinic that will be a private walk-in clinic. Similar to the businesses that operate at – Klondike Medical, Whitehorse Medical – those are private businesses.”

McPhee was asked if the current stampede of patients to the Whitehorse General Hospital emergency ward in the absence of a walk-in clinic is a good use of public funds.

“Well, the emergency room is there for emergencies,” she replied. “And for individuals who cannot get care in other places, don’t have access to primary care.

“There are people who have family doctors who might have to pursue a trip to the emergency room on a weekend, for instance, if they needed something that they couldn’t get in an emergency style, whether it be antibiotics or service or cast for a broken arm.

“I mean, there are lots of people who still have a medical practitioner assigned to a family doctor that still pursue a trip to the emergency room. And that’s why it’s there. And that’s why we provide that service to everyone in the community.”

She was also asked what kind of funding would go toward a government-supported walk-in clinic.

“I don’t have a number; I would have to go to management board and seek the funding if it was something that we couldn’t manage in this year’s budget.

“But we’ve certainly been generous, I would say, in the concept of the conversations that we’ve had so far.”

McPhee also commented on $240,000 that was earmarked for a walk-in clinic that never materialized.

“That’s the project that we were talking about supporting the administration of it, in order to get it up and running, make sure everybody had licences to work in that kind of an environment, and otherwise to support the initial rent for that kind of thing for the space,” she said.

“But that’s the one that, unfortunately, didn’t get pursued.”

As for physicians who are interested in working in government-funded clinics, McPhee said, “We are you talking to everyone about every option ... we’ve just finished the negotiations with the YMA, we had a very good outcome with respect to that, as I’ve said, that agreement incentivizes doctors to take on more patients.

“So we’re very hopeful that implementation of that will affect the amount of people who don’t have their own doctor. And then obviously, a walk-in clinic style would help some patients who are might otherwise be going to emergency room for care.”

The Constellation clinic, she added, “has been the victim, unfortunately, of supply chain issues, labour issues, all of the things that you are all well aware of are occurring, you know, all of our capital builds.

“We have doctors lined up. It’s my understanding as well as some other staff that have been hired. We will have a temporary location for the Constellation clinic before the final location is completed (approximately the spring of 2023).

“We’re working dramatically to get that open because it will provide a certain level of care and certain quality of care in (a) bilingual situation; in French.”

The territory is home to the second-largest francophone community outside of Quebec and New Brunswick “and a very growing and vibrant community here that has required this service for a long time,” McPhee said.

“And we’ve managed to get there, although, unfortunately, some of the actual physical work is slowing it down. And we’re pursuing that (as) quickly as we can.”

The planned publicly-funded clinic “is one of the steps towards the polyclinic style, in that there will be a number of medical professionals providing service there,” she said.

“And their medical doctors that work there will be – I don’t want to say fee for service or contract just yet ’cause I’m not sure what the final arrangement has been.

“But the fee for services (is) what doctors do currently in their own clinics, and they see patients and then they send bills and your current government pays for it through medical services and Health and Social Services.

“And then there are some physicians that our staff physicians like at the hospitals; there’s not too many but a few. Otherwise, they provide service both at their clinic or at the hospital for fee for service.”

A bilingual clinic was a plank in the Liberals’ 2021 election campaign platform.