Statements in Debates
I’m not prepared to commit to a standard today. We’d have to do some analysis and research to see what would be reasonable. I will say that throughout the Northwest Territories the wait times do vary. For instance, in Yellowknife it’s two to three months for counselling, two months for adult psychiatry and it could be two or three months for child and youth psychiatry, and these are for non-urgent issues. In the Sahtu, in Tulita it’s two months. In Deline it’s, surprisingly, turned out to be about two weeks; Colville Lake, one month. In the Deh Cho, Fort Providence is about three weeks, Fort...
I’m not a great big fan of recreating the wheel if it’s already working well. But we would have to explore these programs. They may no longer be relevant; they might be relevant. We’re certainly willing to look at other programs, and I’d appreciate if the Member could maybe share some of his insight into these programs with us as well. In particular, which ones he thinks were really effective and which ones maybe weren’t so effective. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m really happy the Member has actually brought that up. Our chief clinical advisor has actually started doing that work already and it will help us do exactly what the Member is saying. If we find that we have repeat business going down for one particular procedure, it may prove to be far more efficient for us to do that procedure here in the Northwest Territories. There have been some procedures that we have been able to bring some locums in to do in the Northwest Territories to help us reduce costs just based on that type of information.
I hear a lot of people talk...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, the communities that don’t actually have permanent nurses, the amount of time that nurses are visiting does vary from community to community based on the level of need and acuity and different things going on in the community, so there is no one number that is actually utilized. Every authority has a slightly different approach.
As I have said to the Member who asked the questions previously, we’re looking at other opportunities. Maybe not a nurse, maybe not an LPN, maybe a high level first responder might be appropriate to be in there on a more permanent basis...
There’s already a number of community-based organizations that do provide different types or different levels of support. They may not be in every community. In Yellowknife, by way of example, there is the Tree of Peace that does provide some of those services.
We offer, throughout the Northwest Territories, two deliveries in every region. The Mental Health First Aid program, which is actually a wonderful program and I encourage… Actually, I’d like to challenge all the MLAs to actually take the Mental Health First Aid. I’d also like to challenge the MLAs to have their CAs take Mental Health...
Just to be clear, we are talking about the ’15-16 budget, as the Member indicated, and the health transformation will not occur during this fiscal year. Much of the work is going to be done. The actual rollout of the transformed health system will begin April 1, 2016, and it may take a bit of time to realize some of the savings in some of the specific areas where those savings might occur. It would probably be a little premature to say whether or not we will see an increase in the budget in ’16 and ’17 or whether we’d see a decrease in the budget in ’16 and ’17. We are doing the work now that...
We are pleased to announce that we have actually been approved to receive $4.5 million in federal funding under the Territorial Health Investment Fund for the development and initiation of an NWT oral health strategy. Based on the March 2014 report Brushing Up On Oral Health, we have developed an ambitious action plan for the development of an evidence-based strategy to improve the oral health status of NWT residents, particularly with a focus on our children. That number can actually be found on page 221 of this document, and it’s under the title work performed on behalf of others, and it...
The responsibility of health and social services has been devolved down to the Government of the Northwest Territories. There are dollars coming through NIHB that are going to individual Aboriginal residents of the Northwest Territories for different aspects of their care, but it is the Government of the Northwest Territories for the provision of health services in the Northwest Territories. There is the health money that comes from Canada, which we understand is stabilizing. It’s not going to be increasing here in the Northwest Territories, but unlike other jurisdictions it’s not going to be...
I can’t honestly remember which communities are actually currently filled and which communities are not filled. We do have turnover in these communities, but I will commit to getting that information for the Member.
I’d also like to ask the Member if he could share that document with us that articulates the individuals he feels are being failed and we can have further discussion on that as well. Thank you.
I agree with the Member. There is a significant cost to no-show rates both in productivity as well as frustration for those individuals who are on waiting lists. To talk about some of the detailed work that is being done, I will go to the deputy.