The Yukon’s doctors met in Whitehorse late last week to discuss implementing virtual care in the territory.

“Canada is way behind other countries with regards to the use of virtual care,” Sandy Buchman, the president of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), said Friday in Whitehorse.

“Our main problem is access to care.”

Buchman was here for the Yukon Medical Association’s (YMA’s) annual general meeting, which took place Friday and Saturday. Virtual care was pitched as an avenue for addressing barriers to health care in the territory.

Buchman said the Yukon suffers the same challenges as the rest of the country –– lack of physicians and providing care in rural areas –– and those problems can be alleviated by virtual care.

The solution, Buchman said, could be as simple as increasing the number of appointments conducted by telephone.

In other provinces, software is just starting to be used which allows clients to speak with their doctors over video and instant messaging.

Still, Buchman estimated that less than one per cent of client visits in the country are conducted virtually.

By contrast, he said, more than half of health care visits are virtual at some American organizations.

Katharine Smart, the YMA’s incoming president, said there was unanimous agreement among Yukon doctors to focus on virtual care at the AGM.

She said the desire to move forward on virtual care is present with physicians and with clients.

“We all wanted to learn about it,” she said. “We all recognize the desire from our patients.”

Implementing virtual care does present some challenges, Smart and Buchman said.

Canadian medical licensing prohibits doctors from treating patients across provincial and territorial borders, limiting the number of physicians who are able to treat Yukoners.

Acquiring a licence to practise outside of your home jurisdiction, Buchman said, requires time and fees that could amount to the thousands of dollars.

The CMA is calling for national licensure to eliminate this problem.

Another challenge, Buchman said, is bringing the federal government on board to invest into virtual care.

Without increased investment, it’s challenging to make virtual care cost-effective.

The YMA is also making strides in assessing the doctor shortage in the territory, according to Smart and Alex Poole, the outgoing YMA president.

The Find a Family Doctor program is expected to roll out this month. Yukoners without a family physician can enroll online and will be matched with the next available doctor.

“We feel strongly that’s going to be the first step in understanding what’s happening,” Smart said.

There are currently very few data to assess the gaps in available physicians, she noted.

There are approximately 60 family doctors practising in the territory, Poole told media Friday afternoon.

Once the need for doctors has been assessed, the YMA can move forward on recruiting with knowledge of the type and number of doctors required in the territory.

“A lot of that is finding people who are interested in working here,” Smart said. “It’s about finding people who want to practise comprehensive family medicine.”

Smart said a likely challenge will be in finding physical office space for the increase in practitioners, should that become necessary.

There is a doctor shortage nation-wide, Buchman said. Nearly five million Canadians are without family practitioners.

Consistent primary care, however, is necessary to developing a solid foundation of health in the country.

“It gets more expensive downstream” when Canadians aren’t consistently seeing a family physician, Buchman said.

On Friday, the YMA passed motions on vaping, First Nations education and climate change.

The motion on vaping urged the Yukon government to impose stricter vaping legislation. It recommended the banning of favoured products and vaping-related advertising, and passed unanimously.

A second motion also passed unanimously, urging the Yukon Medical Council to include First Nations education in the conditions of licensure. It called for the requirement of Yukon First Nations 101, which is offered at Yukon College, or an equivalent course in Indigenous history.

The third motion called for the adoption of the CMA’s climate change policy.

It called on the Yukon government to recognize climate change as a public health emergency, meet the Paris accord agreements and support data collection in relation to health and climate change.

Smart told media that the territory’s comprehensive health review is also nearing completion, with the final report expected in December.