State of emergency over shortage of nurses declared in Northwest ON.

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Meeshika Sharma
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Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, in Northwestern ON has declared a state of emergency over a shortage of nurses in the community, and its chief says the federal government needs to do more to ensure that doesn't happen.

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug is a fly-in community, located about 600 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, with a population of about 1,000.

Chief James Cutfeet said in a media release, " Chief James Cutfeet said council was informed that there were three nurses at the community's nursing station. Of those, two were working, as the third needed to sleep after looking after an in-patient overnight."

Concerned he added, ""You may miss a call to an urgent event and that's where crisis issues occur.They(nurses) are in crisis mode in managing the operation of the nursing station."

The facility  is supposed to have a full complement of six nurses at all times due to the size of the clinic and the population of the community. But, Cutfeet said the medical centre usually operates with four or five.

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