Glen Abernethy

Mr. Speaker, I have a return to an oral question asked by Ms. Green on February 15, 2017, regarding the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. More specifically, Mr. Speaker, about the government's role in pharmacy errors.

The department does not have a direct oversight role when a pharmacist makes a dispensing error in a retail pharmacy. The pharmacist's professional ethics and standards of practice will guide how the event is handled.

However, the department does have a role in ensuring that a complaints officer is appointed under the Pharmacy Act to ensure that any person may file a complaint...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 577-18(2): Prescription Drug Monitoring Program." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have that number in front of me. Thank you.

As we look forward and we determine what the baseline is, what if Hay River is the baseline? What if that is the appropriate number of physicians? We don't have that answer. Until we have that answer, we don't know that putting physicians in one community over another is actually going to help us meet our needs.

Also, Mr. Speaker, the current plan is about home support workers. That is the way we have provided those services. Maybe it is not. Maybe we should have more homecare nurses. Maybe we should have community support workers. Maybe we should have family support workers. These are...

As with all program lines, if the dollars are not fully expended, they go back to general revenues.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the budget stands today, there is $7.954 million in the budget for homecare as part of our core services. This $2.5 million is going to increase that $7.954 million to $10.454 million. Mr. Speaker, there is also $5.358 million that comes from the federal government to provide home and community supports to Indigenous people throughout the Northwest Territories. It's our understanding that the federal government is considering modifying their formula on how those dollars are distributed throughout the Northwest Territories, not decreasing the amount but...

Absolutely. We are working closely with our partner departments, both housing and education. There is a lot of data out there. It is a matter of compiling it and putting it together in a useful format so that when we come to committee and say, "this is the baseline," we can defend it and understand it. If it needs to be changed, we are happy to do so. We do need to do the work so that we can make informed, evidence-based decisions in this Assembly.

Moving forward, I commit to providing and ensuring that all communities in the Northwest Territories have adequate homecare supports based on a formula, based on numbers that actually make sense.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, under the Health Information Act, the Department of Health and Social Services and its authorities are required to complete privacy impact assessments before implementing a change to or implementing new information systems or communications technology that involved collection, use or disclosure of personal health information.

To be clear, Mr. Speaker, there have been no changes to the Department of Health and Social Services Authorities Health Information Systems as a result of system transformation. These systems were in place and utilized by the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has actually been working with TELUS to upgrade our EMR to be able to mask or hide client information to address consent conditions brought forward by clients, those individuals who don't want their information seen. Limited masking is currently available in the EMR but there is an upgrade that is currently being installed and tested. It was put in place in September 2016. We are doing some testing on it now that will do exactly what the Member is asking. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.