{"id":200296,"date":"2025-10-09T14:15:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/200296\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T14:15:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:15:19","slug":"inside-a-healthcare-meltdown-in-a-northern-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/200296\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside a healthcare meltdown in a northern community"},"content":{"rendered":"

New documents tell a more complete story of how a nurse was suspended and ultimately left a Northwest Territories community after an MLA led a campaign against her.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Patterson, nurse-in-charge at Fort Resolution\u2019s health centre, was suspended with pay in late 2022 over allegations of racism. Tu Nedh\u00e9-Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon had led calls for her to lose her job.<\/p>\n

An investigation into Patterson\u2019s conduct by outside lawyers spent 81 days interviewing 27 witnesses, many of whom were selected by Edjericon \u2013 an intervention that disturbed Patterson\u2019s union.<\/p>\n

The 1,052-page investigation report found none of the nine allegations against Patterson could be substantiated. Her colleagues said the allegations amounted to a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against a dedicated and professional nurse. The community\u2019s chief supported her.<\/p>\n

Patterson never returned to Fort Resolution. The investigating lawyers said at least one person they interviewed had threatened to assault her if she did. According to those lawyers\u2019 notes, the nurse said she was \u201cnot safe professionally or personally in the community\u201d and her \u201creputation as a professional is defamed in the community and territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Healthcare workers, union representatives and labour experts have condemned the NWT health authority\u2019s handling of the issue. The Union of Northern Workers filed a grievance.<\/p>\n

A labour arbitrator said the health authority believed its investigation was a \u201creasonable response to legitimate and serious community concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arbitrator disagreed. She called the health authority\u2019s treatment of Patterson an \u201cabuse of power\u201d when basic due diligence, she said, would have raised serious questions about the allegations against the nurse.<\/p>\n

The campaign against Patterson began shortly after she had \u201cundertaken some performance management of an Indigenous staff member closely connected\u201d to Edjericon, the arbitrator stated, citing evidence presented to her.<\/p>\n

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Asked about the arbitrator\u2019s conclusions, Edjericon said he would not comment on an independent judicial process out of respect for the parties involved.<\/p>\n

Edjericon was fined $2,500 and reprimanded<\/a> after the territorial integrity commissioner ruled in 2024<\/a> that he had acted inappropriately in leading a campaign to have Patterson fired. <\/p>\n

(Another NWT MLA was the subject of a separate integrity report last week<\/a> after trying to have a principal sacked, though this time the politician was exonerated.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Legislative Assembly has dealt with the findings of the integrity commissioner and that process speaks for itself, including my acceptance of the findings and public apology,\u201d Edjericon stated by email last week.<\/p>\n

Healthcare workers told Cabin Radio the Fort Resolution episode left them believing their employer would offer no support even if they suffered months of abuse at work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a huge part of why I didn\u2019t want to work there any more,\u201d said Brody McGee, a nurse who worked alongside Patterson and watched events unfold. <\/p>\n

\u201cWho\u2019s next? Do I piss off the wrong person and then it\u2019s a series of letters and I\u2019m gone?\u201d<\/p>\n

Patterson told Cabin Radio she could not comment as, though she has left the territory, she technically remains a GNWT employee \u201cbound by their media communication rules.\u201d Her remarks in our reporting are drawn from interviews she gave to investigators, internal emails, and her testimony to the labour arbitrator.<\/p>\n

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In a four-part series, of which this is part one, Cabin Radio will examine what happened at Fort Resolution\u2019s health centre by relying on the contents of internal emails, public reports and interviews with residents and healthcare workers.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll also set out what we heard from Edjericon, the NWT\u2019s health authority, the investigators, the union, the territory\u2019s current and former health ministers and the chief of the Deninu K\u0173\u0119\u0301 First Nation as we looked into the case.<\/p>\n

The state of things as 2022 began<\/p>\n

Jennifer Patterson started working in Fort Resolution in 2018. As the nurse-in-charge at the community\u2019s health centre, she worked six weeks on and six weeks off, alternating with one other worker.<\/p>\n

The health centre is small. Patterson was supposed to manage two nurses alongside some support staff but in practice, with staff hard to find, there was often just one other nurse. Meanwhile, a revolving door of five regional managers in four years supervised Patterson and her team.<\/p>\n

The case that was ultimately formed against her hinged on allegations related to racism, which is a significant issue in northern healthcare. <\/p>\n

Indigenous patients across the territory have complained<\/a> about misdiagnosis, discrimination and neglect. The territory is still actively working to fix this, issuing a 13-step plan<\/a> this summer toward improving healthcare for Indigenous residents.<\/p>\n

In Fort Resolution, relations between some residents and the health centre had been fraught for years. Officials concluded the primary reason was a GNWT policy around how patients get to the centre for treatment.<\/p>\n

Residents sometimes wanted nurses to come to them, or at least bring them to the health centre. Territorial policy forbids that. If you\u2019re a health centre nurse, you work there \u2013 you\u2019re not a paramedic. Some health staff do go to houses to offer pre-arranged home care, but nurses are told not to leave the health centre to respond to emergencies.<\/p>\n

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The community government or local Indigenous government is expected to provide an ambulance service, if it can afford one. Otherwise, RCMP sometimes find themselves stepping in as a last resort.<\/p>\n

This is a source of confusion and frustration in multiple NWT communities. The issue of how patients get to health centres was central to a 2024 coroner\u2019s inquest<\/a> in Tuktoyaktuk.<\/p>\n

Fort Resolution, like Tuktoyaktuk, has no ambulance service.<\/p>\n

Some nurses bend the rules, one healthcare worker told Cabin Radio, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive details of their employment. Patterson, however, was considered by colleagues to be a model of professionalism. \u201cHer decisions were always 100-percent policy supported. Always,\u201d the healthcare worker said.<\/p>\n

Patterson told the labour arbitrator this mix of policy and approach generated a lot of verbal abuse and aggressive behaviour from patients. Meanwhile, the health centre also got the blame if patients didn\u2019t get the medical travel support they hoped for \u2013 which is outside the control of health centre nurses \u2013 or if residents were prevented from seeing someone\u2019s private health records on request, which nurses ordinarily can\u2019t allow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in the past, staff might have acquiesced more easily to unreasonable requests because of fear or pressure. Jen just didn\u2019t do that,\u201d a former colleague said, similarly asking for anonymity. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, nurses in the past would often go into homes to bring people in, and there\u2019s a solid policy against that. And Jen wouldn\u2019t. So people suddenly felt like she was not caring for them the way the other nurses did, when in fact she simply was upholding policy that wasn\u2019t hers to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, signs at the health centre warning patients of a zero-tolerance policy regarding the abuse of staff had been taken down and not replaced. The health authority said the signs had been removed as some residents found them triggering.<\/p>\n

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In their place, Patterson put up a simple sign of her own. \u201cYou respect us and we will respect you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filling out an RL6<\/p>\n

The NWT\u2019s health authority has forms for when something goes wrong. Each form, known as an RL6, gives management a chance to review what happened and take action.<\/p>\n

In Fort Resolution, staff say they were filling out an RL6 multiple times a week to document abuse.<\/p>\n

For example, one RL6 from the health centre in 2022 describes a person reported to have called and said: \u201cYou refused to see my girlfriend when I called you last night and now she is dead. I\u2019m going to have you charged.\u201d The RL6 states the person had not actually called the night before.<\/p>\n

Another RL6 documents Patterson calling back someone who left a voicemail in which she said they told her: \u201cYou are so fucking lazy, you can\u2019t bother to call people back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The patient kept swearing during the ensuing call, the form states. Patterson says she told him his language wasn\u2019t acceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou give everyone else tests in two days but we have to wait five days for you to respond. You fucking pick and choose who you are going to take care of,\u201d she documents the patient saying in response. \u201cWe all know you\u2019re a fucking cow and we need to make sure you are fucking gone from your job.\u201d <\/p>\n

A response from management to this RL6 stated: \u201cStaff involved are fine after speaking with me about the incident. No further action needed at this time regarding this patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Harassment through the night<\/p>\n

People who worked at Fort Resolution\u2019s health centre do not believe the NWT\u2019s health authority prioritized their wellbeing.<\/p>\n

The health authority\u2019s chief operating officer at the time, Lori-Anne Danielson, testified to the labour arbitrator about what she did to help staff who felt they were being repeatedly abused by some residents in Fort Resolution.<\/p>\n

Asked why nurses were not empowered to turn people away who were abusive to staff, Danielson said the health centre was the \u201cone place where people can get health services in the community.\u201d She said staff are trained to end a call if a person is abusive by telling them to call back once they have calmed down.<\/p>\n

Patterson told the arbitrator she could not recall a week going by without filling out an RL6, but said Danielson only visited Fort Resolution a \u201ccouple of times\u201d and only twice offered to speak with a patient who had been abusive. (Danielson said she \u201cfrequently\u201d asked if regional managers had followed up. The NWT\u2019s health authority, asked for comment on the arbitrator\u2019s findings, said it was learning \u201cimportant lessons.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Staff in Fort Resolution assumed they were on their own.<\/p>\n

Every healthcare worker with whom Cabin Radio spoke said a routine, horrible experience would be harassment by phone in the middle of the night. <\/p>\n

The on-call nurse would take the phone home so they could respond to out-of-hours emergencies. Instead, staff described often receiving abusive call after abusive call.<\/p>\n

On-call nurses are obliged to answer every call they receive.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOh yes. Two o\u2019clock. 2:15. 2:30. 2:45,\u201d said one worker, asked about this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to answer that phone. When I hear it\u2019s the same patient, I have to assume they\u2019re calling with a good reason. I need to know why they\u2019re calling. Are you simply calling to wake me up? Do you have an actual reason to call?<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years in healthcare, you get really good at biting your tongue and not saying the nasty thought you would want to, but it is certainly frustrating. It interrupts your sleep and makes it hard to focus the next day when you\u2019re actually caring for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

If nurses follow the health authority\u2019s policy, a series of calls during the night also cuts down on the hours nurses are available to work the next day. Technically, nurses must allow themselves a minimum period of rest. If they are kept up at night by calls, two healthcare workers said, they are expected to compensate by shortening clinic hours the following day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a longstanding history of mistrust with the health centre. Whether it\u2019s warranted or not, that\u2019s the reality of what it was,\u201d said McGee, who for a time was the other nurse-in-charge in Fort Resolution, rotating into the role whenever Patterson left for her six weeks off shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on call could be very, very taxing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d never know what kind of calls you were going to get. There\u2019d be people calling and harassing the nurses. And for a long time there wasn\u2019t any\u2026 it didn\u2019t seem like anybody really cared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The MLA can write up a complaint\u2019<\/p>\n

In April 2022, Richard Edjericon \u2013 a former Yellowknives Dene First Nation chief who now represents Fort Resolution and three other communities in the NWT legislature \u2013 began to voice concerns to territorial government workers about how patients were supposed to get to the health centre.<\/p>\n

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Without any ambulances, he was told transportation was up to the First Nation or the RCMP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MLA can write up a complaint,\u201d a regional manager at the health authority wrote to a senior manager in an internal email at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows the need for transportation. Enough complaints will hopefully push the community to come together and provide a ground transport service.\u201d<\/p>\n

What actually ended up happening was very different.<\/p>\n

The second article in this series will examine a key newspaper article that triggered an open letter to Fort Resolution, how healthcare leaders responded to that article internally, and how events escalated into a major investigation.<\/p>\n

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