There are a large number of people in the Yukon who don't have access to a family doctor, and the territory needs new initiatives to attract physicians to fix the problem.

That's the opinion of Dr. Wayne McNicol, the outgoing Yukon Medical Association president, who said the YMA receives calls everyday from Yukoners who can't find a family doctor.

In an interview with the Star last Thursday afternoon, McNicol said the territory is having trouble attracting medical professionals. That has left many Yukoners to turn to walk-in clinics and hospital emergency rooms to access primary medical care and get referrals to specialists.

He said specialists are also in short supply in the territory.

'Every single day; every single day, we get calls. We get calls from from (Yukon MP) Larry Bagnell's office because they say (people) can't find a family physician.

'They call the Department of Health and say they can't find a family doc. They call around to offices and say they can't find a family doc.'

McNicol said the problem is compounded by the high doctor turnover rate which sees the Yukon lose 10 per cent of its doctors per year.

'If you look at a place like Kelowna (B.C.), you have a turnover of maybe one per cent. If you're looking at the Yukon, you're talking about a 10 per cent turnover of family physicians every year. That means those physicians who leave, for whatever reason, leave their patients, some of whom have complex medical problems, without a physician to actually pick up those patients.

'It really creates a problem and the government is aware of it and (the YMA) is trying to create solutions.'

McNicol said he feels the territory needs to offer incentives to young doctors who may not have considered moving to the Yukon as a viable option.

He said offering new doctors debt relief, financial assistance with setting up their offices and financial incentives to stay in the territory could help the situation.

In the same Thursday interview, Dr. Ruth Collins-Nakai, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said the problem is being experienced across the country. It's largely due to cutbacks in medical school enrolment and health personnel in the 1990s, she added.

'For the past two or three years, doctors have been worried about access by their patients to health care services.

'There are about 3.6 million people who don't have access to a GP at any given time.

'We're concerned about that because it forces them to go to walk-in clinics, medi-clinics or emergency rooms as their primary contact.'

Collins-Nakai said many doctors in Canada are working more than 80 hours a week already and are beginning to strain under mounting demands.

'Doctor burnout and suicide rates are increasing,' she said.

Answering questions at the YMA's annual general meeting on Friday afternoon, Premier Dennis Fentie acknowledged there is a problem.

'There are certainly no political boundaries in this area; it affects everybody. As the governing party, we are very, very focused on how we can recruit or obtain medical care givers.'

Fentie said in combatting the problem, his government (YTG) made financial gains with the federal government which would help the YTG address the problem of doctor shortages.

'That's actually why we stood our ground as we did to get to our fiscal arrangement with (the government of) Canada. No longer are we contented on a per-capita share transfer of Canadian health care funding.

'We're in better shape today than we were a couple of years ago with the new fiscal arrangement with Canada.'

When asked by the Star, Fentie was unable to provide specific examples of government initiatives to attract new doctors to the territory.