Sandy Lee

Mr. Speaker, as I stated yesterday, this is a medical decision. A medical doctor at Stanton decides that somebody needs to go elsewhere to receive medical care that we cannot provide here. The medical doctor would be in touch with somebody in Capital Health to receive our patients. So it’s a medical decision; it’s a medical practice decision, and I believe in this case that decision was made by the medical practitioners.

Notwithstanding this particular situation, most of the feedback we do receive is that we get very good service from Capital Health. Capital Health Authority and the services that the Government of Alberta provide are, I believe, among the best. I just don’t know where else we would go to get the services that our residents receive.

Mr. Speaker, we have a contract with the Capital Health Authority. They guarantee that NWT residents will receive the same level of medical care that Alberta residents will receive.

I did what I think the Member expects a Minister to do. When the patient’s husband called me at my office and told me what was going on, I directed the department to look into it. That is what I did. And I was advised of what was going on in between some of the actions the government was taking.

So, Mr. Speaker, I am responsible as the Minister of Health and Social Services and as a Member of this Assembly to respond to calls I get at my office, and that is what I did on Monday. I am willing to have the department review this file and also look to see what had happened and what we could do to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am always willing to take responsibility and apologize where necessary, but I am not sure if I could apologize on behalf of the services provided by the Government of Alberta. I am not the Minister in Alberta. These are decisions made by the doctor in Stanton and the doctor at the receiving end. I think it is unfortunate and regrettable that this situation happened. I believe that the department officials and the people responsible at this end did everything we could to help with the patient and the family.

I believe so.

The doctor here decided that she needed services we didn’t have here. Capital Health doctors decided that she had to go to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. We had inquired about other capacities, and I understand that the emergency units in Calgary, as well as in Grande Prairie, were also at full capacity.

I’m not aware of this two week ago communication the Member is talking about. I did talk to the husband of the patient yesterday. I let him know that I was taking this issue very seriously and that I was using all of my powers and authority available to me to help this NWT resident who is being cared for in emergency without being able to find her own room.

We use Capital Health services because for services like neurology and cardiology, we don’t have those services here. The doctors here felt it was better for her to be sent there than to stay here. She was being taken care of and monitored...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Among Canadian women breast cancer is the form of cancer most often diagnosed. It ranks second after lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths. More than 21,200 Canadian women will be diagnosed with this disease each year, and more than 5,200 deaths will occur as a result. In the NWT about 20 new breast cancer cases are diagnosed each year, comprising 40 per cent of all cancers diagnosed in women. The incidence of breast cancer among NWT women is higher than the Canadian rate.

The evidence is strongly established that routine mammography screening reduces the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The master plan has been redeveloped with a focus on the seven critical areas. The department feels that we do have a workable plan worked out now. We will go through the new capital planning process, which has a committee made up of officials who will review this and put it back into the capital planning process. It will progress along with all the other projects that will be put into it that are ready with a concrete plan. This project is at that stage.