Sandy Lee

I don’t think this is a question of lack of detail. I think that I can explain the details. I don’t even know if I have enough time, Mr. Speaker. I have said it’s already been said that THAF was until 2009-10. We were able, and we were lucky, to get an extension of two years. The budget for 2009-2010 does not include THSSI funding. This is why it’s not called THSSI instead of THAF, and I keep telling the Member and he doesn’t want to believe me. He says there’s a lack of detail. He’s not accepting the answers. We just approved a supplementary appropriation approving THSSI, so we have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The issue on this, I don’t believe, has to do with an agreement with Capital Health necessarily. It is true that when NWT residents need health care not available in the Territories, we usually go to Alberta and Edmonton, and it used to be called Capital Health, which now is Alberta Health. The issue here about the residents of Liard wanting to go to Nelson instead of Simpson or Stanton and then Edmonton, if that’s required, is that we already have a facility in Simpson and Stanton that we are paying for. If our residents are going to Nelson, then that’s extra cost that...

We do have a dichotomy of our residents going down to the Primary Care Centre and they’re concerned that they have to wait for half an hour on the phone for an appointment, whereas in many of our communities we have people who have to wait for days and if they miss a doctor’s appointment, it’s weeks.

So, Mr. Speaker, when Action Canada, the research tank, was up here, when they looked at the fact that we are delivering health care to 40,000 people in 33 communities over a land mass that’s four times bigger than France, he just said that is a challenge. Medical travel, medical technology and...

Thank you. The Member is absolutely right in what he’s saying and this is why our work in the department has been in creating a territorial team where doctors, nurses, everybody is working as a team to make their services available to everyone in the Territories, especially the small communities. The Member is right when he says that a lot of our communities, actually over 25 of them have to wait for doctors, eye doctors, specialists, and nurses even come two or three times a week, they’re not there permanently. So we are working and medical directors and all the nursing professions are coming...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that the automatic door situation was really unfortunate. As soon as that was made apparent to us, DPW and Department of Health and Social Services and YPCC worked immediately to rectify that.

To answer the naming of it, the authority did have public consultation and the board decided that they would like to stay with the Yellowknife name because that’s what even the communities outside of Yellowknife recognize the facility to be. Mr. Speaker, I... Oh. System off line. I will talk to the authority about a possible name change to reflect the...

The steps are being taken and have been taken to address that issue. The phone system they installed at the clinic is quite sophisticated, but we have been running into some trouble. The authority has been working with the provider and the main person from the headquarters. They have been meeting. It’s a sophisticated system that’s able to evaluate and take all of the numbers of the calls being made, how long people are waiting for and how they can improve. As the Member knows, because we have met with the authority, they’re observing all of that and will be analyzing that and I expect to get...

The work is underway, so nothing is stopping us from moving forward on this. I made a commitment as per the advice from the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning. I believe we have strong support from the Members on the other side to move forward in finding solutions on the recommendations made on the report. We are committed to working out the plan and implementing it. I will be working closely with standing committee on that. We need to lay out the plan and we are working on that. We are following an aggressive strategy and schedule. Thank you.

I do appreciate the Member’s strong advocacy for the protection and provision of services to the working poor. He’s been a strong advocate throughout this supp health benefits review process and in the last Assembly as well.

Mr. Speaker, we need to work this in a package. We need to address all of these things at the same time, because the Member knows already that our Supp Health Program is already over-expended and we need to find some savings and find ways to help those who are without minimal dental and vision care at the moment. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, investment in HealthNet tools such as the interoperable Electronic Health Record (or iEHR), the Diagnostic Imaging/Picture Archiving Communication System (or DI/PACS), and Telehealth are critical to delivery of health care services for residents of the Northwest Territories.

These tools are resulting in better access and outcomes across the Northwest Territories. In the words of a local clinician, “This is transforming how we deliver care.” In the words of one patient, “For 10 seconds, everything went terribly wrong. Then for the next four days, everything went very right. The...

Thank you. Sustainability is a question on all health care programs, including the Supp Health Benefits Program, and this is why I believe that the recommendations made by the Supp Health Benefits Joint Working Group is timely, because it’s tasked us to find ways to encourage people to get third-party insurance.

Mr. Speaker, as I have stated many a time in the House, this is one of the few government programs where some people can get the assistance elsewhere, and we need to encourage that. So a part of our work is to encourage employers to offer health care benefits and then individuals to...