At a time when some Islanders are alarmed by staff shortages in emergency medical care, Gordon Horneris a model of clinical constancy. Last year, the 59-year-old Daajing Giids GP was one of only eight doctors in Canada to receive an award for length of service in a rural community.

Dr. Horner began his Haida Gwaii practise in 2001, inspired to make it his home by the “good, humane and holistic care” of the health worker she met here. “Of course, I was also taken by the profound connection to place and community of the Haida culture,” he says, “and by the natural beauty of the islands.”

But he soon found that the workday of a physician in an island setting can be challenging and exhausting. Asked to describe a typical day, Dr.Horner suggests there is no suchthing. A doctor’s life here involves acomplex juggling of tasks.

There are regular clinic days, outreach clinic days, on-call days and post-call days. In the first category, he will see patients with booked appointments in the Xaayda Gwaay Ngaaysdll Haida Gwaii Hospital and Health Centre. The outreach days have him on the road - in K’il Kun Sandspit, HlGaagilda Skidegate and in half-day clinics at the Gidgalang Kuuyas Naay Secondary School in Daajing Giids. The on-call days are often the busiest: being available inthe ER from 8am to 8am the next day and seeing urgent care walk-in appointments. “These days are always a bit frantic,” he says, “but also very satisfying, and most nights I do get some sleep!” Finally, there are post-call days, for minor procedures and complex assessments, home visits and family meetings.

Added to all this is his role as the hospital’s Xaayda Gwaay Ngaaysdll’s Chief of Staff which means meetings, advocacy, and working with administrative staff to try to keep the hospital running as smoothly as possible.

This schedule leaves little time for his main passion outside work: music. “I’ve managed,” he says, “to keep going with our community choir, the Gwaii Singers, and intermittently some Celtic music on the penny whistle.” Dr. Horner also plays the saxophone. “Someday I hope to get back to my classical roots on the piano and my favourite, chamber music on the bassoon, but that may have to wait for retirement!”

Does he have a wish list for improved medical care on Haida Gwaii? “The biggest needs I see,” he says, “are in Elder support, both with more extensive homecare as well as more in-facility long-term care beds and staff, and in mental health and addiction support programs and staff.

“And then there is the ongoing need for more supports for rehabilitation and physiotherapy, and a huge role for increased primary care access with the addition and staffing of nurse practitioner roles… Finally,while it is usually in abundance here, I wish for patience, kindness and understanding from all our fellow islanders who need our help and support as we try to navigate through the ‘interesting times’ ahead.”

Photos courtesy Gordon Horner