Julie Green

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've had versions of this question recently, and I would like to confirm that medical travel only is paid when the patient has been referred by an NWTbased physician for additional care. And so somebody who decides to jump in their vehicle and drive to Edmonton for a diagnostic or treatment services would be doing so at their own expense. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have conducted or the nurses association has conducted a couple of surveys to find out why it is that people are not coming here and not staying here. And certainly, we have heard the cost of living here is an issue; separation from family in the south is an issue; the burnout, which we've all heard about in the healthcare professions, is an issue. The labour pool is smaller than it was. And we've also heard that while we have been a generous employer in the past, the gap between what we offer and what's offered in the south has closed in the last...

Yeah, I neglected also to introduce Ms. Jeanette Demerse who is visiting us in the House today. Thank you.

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I heard the Member say in his statement that our health was at risk, and I would just like to say that, in fact, we have the resources to cope with the health care demand as it exists now, both at Stanton and in the regional centres. We have protocols in place that enable us to surge with staff and beds to meet the needs of patients and also to assist the telehealth medical professionals in the regional centres and in the health care centres to treat the residents who come their way. So at this point, while our resources are thin, we do believe that we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, my thanks to the Member for highlighting this area. Yes, indeed, we are keen to recruit and retain healthcare professionals. We have developed a health human resources workforce plan, which will be made public next month. It's a threeyear plan that looks at a variety of measures to bring to bring healthcare professionals to the Northwest Territories and to have them to have them live here over the long term.

Not only that, Mr. Speaker, I have been successful in persuading my federal colleagues at the FPT health ministers' table to create a national health human...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in the gallery is my partner Janice McKenna, and her eldest brother Peter McKenna from Calgary. I'd like to welcome them to the House. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's not possible for me to comment on individual patient's cases because of privacy considerations. I just will go back again to the difference between screening and diagnosis. Screening can happen in the small health centres for colorectal cancer, cervical cancer. But you need to have no symptoms in order to be screened. You just need to show up. The diagnosis would happen in Yellowknife or further afield maybe in Edmonton.

I would say to the Member that the Department of Health and Social Services has a patient experience questionnaire available at...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it's my understanding that the consultation on the seniors strategy is going to begin in April, and it will last for a couple of months of having different kinds of consultation online, in person, special meetings, and so on.

It was my understanding that a "what we heard" report would be developed and finished in June, and then the strategy itself wouldn't be ready until the fall. So I think there's my understanding and what's written here are not the same. So I am expecting to see it in the fall and so that that gives us about four or five months to...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the referral onwards for diagnosis is provided by a healthcare professional. In the case of small health centres, that would be a community health nurse. If it's an emergency, the telehealth system is available for the community health nurse to call the Stanton emergency room and speak to a physician there. And then, as I say, when the visiting doctor comes, it's possible for that person to make a referral for a diagnosis. So those are the different ways that that's handled by medical health professionals who are working in the local community setting...