NWT prepares to introduce round-the-clock lab work at Stanton

The new NWT budget promises $3.1 million to “create 24-hour, seven-days-a-week laboratory and diagnostic services at Stanton Territorial Hospital.”

A public discussion between MLAs and the health minister late last week provided more detail about this coming change.

More: NWT, ‘expecting a lot’ in 2026, unveils budget for the year ahead

Delays in lab work have been a problem in the NWT for years.

In 2024, managers tried to change the system but some residents said things only got worse.

Last year, the territorial health authority unveiled a callback request form to offer “a fair chance to access services, even during high-demand periods” – but that didn’t address the availability of lab work itself.

The budget introduced by finance minister Caroline Wawzonek last week does appear to directly address this by increasing the number of staff dedicated to lab work.

“I am very excited about the 24/7 model of the laboratory and diagnostic imaging services for Stanton that has been announced in this budget,” Great Slave MLA Kate Reid said as territorial politicians began going through the proposed healthcare budget line by line last Friday.

“It appears that 21 new positions will be established to support that model. Can the minister elaborate as to how that model will run and whether or not positions will be difficult to recruit and retain?”

Health minister Lesa Semmler responded in part: “This laboratory and X-ray expansion in the budget is related to many of the issues that we have heard.

“Currently, we have a seven and a half hours, you know, with extended hours and flex – sometimes they flex and most of the time it’s overtime. We do not have enough positions to run a 24-hour, but yet we need a 24-hour because we know that our hospital is gridlocked, our ICU is always full, our emergency department is always full, and therefore patients need to move.

“Usually the things that are holding up making sure they’re being diagnosed properly or tended to properly is blood work, is X-rays, is CT scans, is those types of things. And where we were also spending a lot of money is sending a lot of the tests out of territory.”

This new money, Semmler said, will mean “there’s always somebody working in the lab, there’s always somebody drawing blood, there’s always somebody there to be able to X-ray.”

She added that though the positions are assigned to Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, the intention is for this to have a wider impact as the hospital’s lab “is a territorial support for the entire territory.”

‘Not everybody wants the midnight shift’

Reid said this kind of upgrade would be “very important to many of my constituents” but pressed Semmler on how the GNWT will ensure the new positions are staffed.

The territory has spent years trying all kinds of measures to recruit and retain staff in a highly competitive nationwide battle for healthcare workers. Some efforts have been more successful than others.

“I assume not everybody wants to work the midnight shift at the lab,” said Reid.

“Is there a plan in place to make sure, once we have recruited these positions, what retention looks like?”

Semmler said health authority managers had assured her they will be able to fill the new roles, adding that efforts to bring on extra staffing were “already showing results.” She did not specify any new measures to specifically ensure the lab-related positions stay filled.

Yellowknife North MLA Shauna Morgan followed up, asking the minister what new approaches might be coming given employee turnover “got slightly worse” in the past year.

Semmler said her department was “restrained” in what it could do. Health deputy minister Alan Doody added that work was taking place “on items related to housing to support workers and things of that nature.”

He said a new work plan is being drafted at the health authority that’s “focused on initiatives to be able to recruit and retain healthcare workers,” though when that work plan will be made public was not clear.

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