Statements in Debates
Yes, thank you. I don't have any information on a comprehensive program.
Osteoarthritis, which I have, and rheumatoid arthritis are different conditions. Rheumatoid arthritis is an immune system issue, usually diagnosed in people when they are in their early 30s and requires ongoing care. Osteoarthritis is not the same problem, and it's dealt with by orthopaedic surgeons, not by rheumatologists. So what I can see happening is that the more intense care that people with rheumatoid arthritis need will be rebuilt here in the NWT so that we can achieve our two goals of making patient care close to...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to, first of all, say that the 400 people who need services from rheumatology continue to get those services, not in Yellowknife but in Alberta. So the program is not offered here but there are services available to people with rheumatoid arthritis.
What I want to say is that this is a temporary interruption. The medical director has been clear that the intention is to rebuild the program with a better service model that provides care close to home and she continues, I know, to work on this as a priority.
In the past, we have closed the chemotherapy...
Thank you. Mr. Speaker, this is a core service of the NTHSSA and so when people need this service, it's provided, and so we budget an amount, which we'll see in the main estimates. But if it turns out there's more demand than we have money for, then we go through a supplementary appropriation to ensure that we have the money we need to pay for the services that are offered.
The additional cost here is for medical travel but we always paid Alberta for the services and so we continue to pay them, in Edmonton now, rather than operating here. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our priority is always patient care. The reality of the size of our territory is that we can't attract or fully engage specialists here the way a specialist working in a population of a million people can. So we continue to depend on Alberta health services to supplement our healthcare system, and we're very grateful that they triage our patients the same as Albertans so that we get very good service from them. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is generally the fire departments who also take care of the emergency responder calls, and there is training available through the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. It was being done online during the COVID time, but I think it's gone back to inperson training now. So I would encourage the Member to connect with my colleague, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, for more information. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. The reasons the nurses don't leave the health centre is they are prohibited from doing so by policy. The emergency first responders who attend to immediate problems car crashes, people fainting, and so on they are specifically trained as first responders and they have the appropriate equipment, including transportation, to respond to the situation. So there are four communities in the NWT where municipalities provide that service but, unfortunately, this does not happen in the small communities. And I realize that...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. So the licensing of nurses of all kinds is handled by the Registered Nurses Association of the NWT and Nunavut. So they're the ones who process the registration application. And the application does require proof of credentials, prior work sites, hours worked, and so on and so forth. That means that often they have to apply to the licensing authority where they were previously employed for paperwork. And as the Member said in his statement, in the case of Ontario it took a couple of months to get that lined up. So I don't...
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just to be really clear, we have contracts with five addictionsbased facility treatments in BC, Alberta, and Ontario. If people are seeking facilitybased treatment, they should connect with their community counselling program and get a referral to one of those places. That's the start of the process. And once they're referred to the place, they go on to that place's waiting list, and they are then accepted when a bed is available. And using the method I've just described, the treatment is fully paid for. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if an NWT resident is referred to one of the treatment centres that we currently have contracts with, we will pay the full amount of the treatment cost, and we expect to add an Indigenous specific offering to the treatment centre list by the beginning of April. Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is really a twopart process. The first part is that the individual who wants treatment needs to be assessed by a healthcare practitioner or counsellor as understanding what's involved in treatment, ready for treatment, preferences for treatment, where they would like to go and so on. That is part one. Part two is then sending the referral to the addictions treatment centre, and then they do or don't have beds available, they put the person on the waiting list. There are a number of variables depending on the size and capacity of the treatment...