All six members of the Yukon Medical Council, the territory's licensing and regulatory board for doctors, have resigned.

Council chair Dr. Bruce Beaton says the decision to unanimously resign last week came after more than a year of the council trying to get the government to pay attention to problems in the way the current system is structured.

The medical council is made up of six people, four doctors and two lay people. They are responsible for licensing, regulating and handling complaints about the territory's approximately 210 full- and part-time

physicians.

The council is meant to be an arm's-length organization but falls under the responsibility of the Department of Community Services and relies on government staff for help.

"The Yukon medical council has no staff, we have no budget,” Beaton told the Star today.

After six years on the council, Beaton said the responsibilities of the group have increased dramatically, particularly since 2009 and the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT).

Under that pact, physicians, once they're licensed in the jurisdiction, cannot be denied a licenses in another jurisdiction.

"All of a sudden the responsibilities of the members on the council became significantly different. No longer could we try to make our own territorial needs our own priorities. We had to meet national standards,” Beaton said.

"Doing that really requires a significant amount of work. Most of the standards that are out there are in the form of monitoring requirements, assessment requirements, that require ongoing infrastructure functioning here, by us.”

The council says it cannot do that without a dedicated staff.

"It's a little tough to be an arm's-length body when you are within a department of the government and your staff support are all government employees,” he said.

"I'm not making the following statement intending to be derogatory in any sense, but, their primary responsibility is to their employer.

"If there are conflicts, as there invariably are, between the concerns of the council and the concerns of the government ... their responsibility is to their employers.”

Without a council, no new doctors can be licensed to practise in the territory.

Meanwhile, the shortage of doctors in the territory is often in the news. Multiple offices around the Yukon are looking to fill spots.

Dr. Rao Tadepalli, the president of the Yukon Medical Association, which advocates for doctors in the Yukon, said the system has "come to a grinding halt.

"The internal specialist that comes here comes here with residents — doctors in training — to take the initial history so he can see more patients,” Tadepalli said. "They (the residents) can't come.”

Any doctor looking to take a temporary leave would also be in trouble, because no new doctors could be brought in to take his or her spot, he said.

Community Services Minister Elaine Taylor said Tuesday afternoon that reissuing annual licences of doctors currently working in the territory can still be done through the registrar's office.

Taylor said her department offers a number of individuals to help the council.

"There's a number of individuals at the registrars office. The director, there's a licence and intake officer, and there is an administrative person as well,” she said.

The director and the administrative assistant only spend a portion of their time on the medical council, while the intake officer is a full-time dedicated position, she said.

When you combined the human resources time with other funding, Taylor estimates her department spends about $250,000 annually on the council.

"We've been working towards a memorandum of understanding to really delineate the roles and the responsibilities of each of the respective parties,” she said.

"We've also worked to enhance the level of resources available to the council, whether that's remuneration, honouraria, travel as well as access to legal counsel when it comes to investigations.

"We have in fact, been working to address a number of these issues, and we recognize clearly that there's more work to be done.”

Taylor plans to have a meeting Thursday with the medical association, the medical council's former members and political officials to hear about the issues first-hand.

This morning, Beaton said he had not been officially invited, though he heard about the meeting from radio reports.

Beaton said he spoke with a string of politicians, including Premier Darrell Pasloski and Health and Social Services Minister Doug Graham, as well as deputy ministers with the Departments of Community Services and Health and Social Services, before the council members made the difficult decision to step down.

He never spoke with Taylor, who was chosen by the government to answer media questions on the issue.

In June 2012, Beaton began to explore the possibility of forming a College of Physicians and Surgeons of the Yukon.

"We would be removed from the government,” he said.

"The colleges in all the provinces are autonomous, independent agencies that function in a relationship with the government and in a relationship with the medical association but independent of both. They are truly self-regulating,” he said.

After speaking with Health and Social Services, Beaton said, he was told government would do a feasibility study on the idea if the medical association pays for half.

At its annual general meeting last November, the medical association agreed to foot half the bill, about $11,000, and Beaton went back to the government.

"At that point, I received a different response. All of a sudden, it was not OK for us to do this study; we have to find someone else to do it for us. It was moved off of the desk of the person dealing with it at the time ... it really hasn't progressed since then.”

Taylor said she doesn't have any specific details on that concern because it was handled by a different department from hers.

For Tadepalli, this negative attitude on the part of the government is sending the wrong message to doctors who may want to work in the territory, at a time when they are desperately needed.

"It's a negative image for doctors working here and those who want to come here,” he told the Star Tuesday afternoon.

"Nobody wants to come to a place where your medical licence is compromised, where there is anything perceived as a fight going on,” he said.

Members of the medical council are approved by both the government and the medical associations. Terms are for three years, though they can be extended,

Tadepalli said the message he's been getting from the government is to "Name your next six people that you want us to look at.”

He said: "The government should make it their top priority. Changing their attitude and mending their relationship with the doctors.”

As for whether the six former members will be invited back once the issues are resolved, Taylor said she didn't want to speculate.

Beaton said it's something he would consider.

"We resigned because we can no longer carry on under the current structure,” he said.

"We've been working for 14 months to change that structure, and if we can successfully change that structure, I think the six individuals might still be committed to doing what we've been doing for the last multiple years.” he said, adding that he cannot speak for everyone.

After having worked in the Yukon since 1975, Beaton said, he's still dedicated to having quality medical care in the territory.

"However, I cannot continue to participate in the way it is currently structured.”