Tom Beaulieu

Mr. Speaker, I haven’t specifically talked to other Ministers. We all have the different types of issues in recruiting doctors. There are doctor shortages everywhere. It’s just that our percentage of our population that don’t have immediate access to doctors is probably higher than most, maybe not as high as Nunavut but higher than most places. We develop various strategies. We have a website. We have bursaries. We have 22 medical students from NWT now out in school that we are tracking. Like I indicated, we offer a good compensation package. We also offer residency to any doctors that wish to...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to recognize some people from the health authorities and Health and Social Services. These individuals are taking advanced investigations training. We have Cheryl Abraham, Fort Providence, Deh Cho Health and Social Services; Jocelyn MacLean, Fort Simpson, Deh Cho Health and Social Services; Debbie Greenland, Inuvik, Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services; Lisa Norris, Aklavik, Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services; Ellen McDonald, Inuvik; Melissa McDonald, Inuvik; Tasha Lake, Yellowknife; Amanda Neville, Yellowknife; Vanessa Rankin, Yellowknife...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the inpatient outpatient reciprocal billing rates that are approved with an Interprovincial Health Insurance Agreements Coordinating Committee so that the department's representative on committee presents a territorial inpatient rate for approval and this rate is calculated by the department based on actual prior year’s adjustments for inflation. So that’s how we do the recoveries of the actuals and to make sure that we get all of the recoveries, there are some adjustments made.

I don’t have the specific stats on how many patients may have been returned by a peace officer to the hospital, but there is a provision in there that if a person is there under the certificate of involuntary admission and they choose to leave the hospital, then the physician can have them returned by a peace officer, RCMP, whatever. But I don’t know how many times that has occurred over the past year or over the past history.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the system relies on a Community Health Management Information System. This is where all of the visits, whether they be mental health or other health visits, are recorded and then provided to the department and, actually, it’s manually entered at this time. This is one of the things that we are trying to address through the introduction of the electronic medical record. But at this time they are entered and, admittedly, we are quite a ways behind on entering all the data, but we are getting caught up in some of the regions.

The current system allows for the health authorities to request training, and the department works with the trainers and so on to train people on the Mental Health Act. But at the same time, the same statistics that we provided to the Member, there are many incidences across the territory that would require some special attention. I will take it back to the department to ensure that the staff is fully up to speed on the Mental Health Act right across our system. Thank you.

Patients that leave the health centre that are there voluntarily, regardless of what the problem may be, are not necessarily contravening the Health Act. However, there are patients that are there involuntarily and in that case the physician can fill out a form that will detain the patient for up to two weeks. During that two-week period, if the patient chooses to leave the hospital or the health centre on their own, then the physician can ask for a peace officer to return the patient. There’s also a provision within that system, in that form or that certificate, involuntary admission, to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my constituency assistant, Beverly Catholique.

Mr. Speaker, definitely, language and culture is a huge part of our diabetes work. In fact, we work with the home care…(inaudible)…Canadian Health under the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative. We get funding from that and the work is more or less in the chronic disease prevention. So this is the work we do. We specifically get money for the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative, so language and culture would be very important in the delivery of that specific program. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, yes, I will work towards producing a discussion paper to be shared not only with Cabinet, but the rest of the Legislative Assembly, on looking at consolidating budgets under my responsibility as Minister of Seniors. Thank you.