Quick facts about Northern Health

Northern Health is responsible for the delivery of health care across Northern British Columbia, including acute care, mental health, public health, addictions, and home and community care services.

Geography Northern Health covers almost two-thirds of British Columbia’s landscape, bordered by the Northwest and Yukon Territories to the north, the BC interior to the south, Alberta to the east, and Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the west. For a more detailed view of our region, please click here to launch a PDF version of our map (Adobe Acrobat reader is required) Northern Health is divided into three operational areas called Health Service Delivery Areas (HSDAs): the Northeast, the Northern Interior, and the Northwest. This structure helps to provide a greater degree of local operation and decision-making for health facilities across Northern British Columbia

Population
About 300,000 people live in Northern BC. By 2010, the population is expected to grow to just over 348,000. The North has the highest projected growth rate of seniors in BC, with a 48 per cent projected increase by 2010. 13 per cent of the population is Aboriginal, the highest proportion in the province.

Governance
Northern Health is governed by a nine-member board, made up of individuals from throughout the North. The Chairman of the Board is Dr. Charles Jago.

Administration
The CEO of Northern Health is Cathy Ulrich. Within each of the three health service delivery areas, a Chief Operating Officer has been named. They include Marina Ellinson in the Northwest, Michael McMillan in the Northern Interior, and Betty McCracken Morris in the Northeast.

Operating Budget
Northern Health's annual operating budget for the 2007/2008 fiscal year is $560 Million.

Medical Staff and Employees
Over 7,000 people work for Northern Health. They hold about 4,000 full-time equivalent positions.

Facilities
Within Northern Health, there are over two dozen acute care facilities, 14 long term care facilities, public health units, andoffices providing specialized services.

Service Delivery
In the 2004/2005 operating year:

• Physicians across Northern Health performed over 24,000 surgeries
• Northern Health welcomed the arrival of almost 3,000 babies across the region
• Facilities across Northern Health provided 544 acute care bed spaces, and more than 64,000 (in-patient) overnight stays were recorded
• Northern Health facilities scheduled over 110,000 outpatient visits (including specialty clinics and rehabilitation)
• Northern Health emergency departments received almost 255,000 visits
• Home support workers provided almost 375,000 hours of assistance to clients
• Home care nurses provided over 60,000 hours of care to individuals at home
• Care facilities across the region provided 900 residential care bed spaces