Stanton Territorial Hospital

Stanton Territorial Hospital must be a nice place to work. Aside from the beautiful scenery of Frame Lake's undeveloped shore along the walking path that takes you to the hospital from my apartment, it's the only major hospital for hundreds of kilometers, with the next larger centre being in Edmonton. That means that it has a variety of services available, including Internal Medicine, Gen Surg, ENT, and Paeds, as well as its own CT scanner (which some towns of Yellowknife's size do not have). For MRI and Nuclear Medicine, you have to go to Edmonton.

The ED is less than 1/3 the size of any of LHSC's, but seems relatively busy during the day. Not hectic, but enough to have something to do most of the time. Of course, that's just today, and since I'm not expecting to get paid for any of this, I don't do paperwork after the patient leaves. Once I've been here a bit longer I'll see if there's anything that sticks out about the patient population.

Some of the internists drive out for a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays to the nearby communities that are accessible by car. I'm going to see if I can get a chance to go with them at least once while I am here.

Slave Lake is actually quite mind-bogglingly large - easily comparable to Superior in its size, and without a doubt much cleaner. On Google Maps, Yellowknife sits on a tiny bay that juts out to a slightly larger bay, that opens out after 10km or so onto another, much larger bay that then joins the main body of the lake, like a fractal pattern. If it were summer I'd like to take a boat out there, but it looks like it's freezing up, and I'm a landlubber.


A construction worker I saw today in Emerg said he had first gone to a clinic in Fort Providence with his injury. Fort Providence is almost on the opposite side of Slave Lake. Construction workers around here must have a high mortality.

Yesterday I wandered around the town. Saw the local mosque, (under renovation) some native art galleries (anything under $30 is Made in India or China, while most local stuff ranges from $300-$25,000), and took another look at the marina, where a lone beaver was busy diving around the Ministry of Natural Resources' docks. We have those in Ottawa. From some of the conversations I overheard today, though, the little guy was lucky not to get decapitated in the course of that great circle of life.

I've been pondering what to photograph while I'm here. On the lakeside walk to the hospital, to the north side lies the untouched beauty of the lake and the islands around it. There are apparently land claims issues around here that remain unresolved, which stymies development. For frivolous reasons, I think that's a good thing, but I'm sure there are local people around who would resent the notion that they be denied prosperity in order to preserve a view that they can get just by driving another 10km down the road.

On the south side lies the town, including a McDonald's and an large supermarket. I don't want to make the place seem like all lakes and snow and trees - I don't want to construct an articifial Yellowknife to take home with me, one that nicely fits the preconceived notions that I might have arrived with.

Then again, I've seen only a few square kilometers of this vast northern country, and I'm still under the tree line, and it's still October. If only I had a longer stay!

There have been breaks in the clouds, but no large patches of blue yet. Aurora Viewing Index - 10%. Curses!