Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan will be rolled out once we are able to get our business case to the business planning process.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

I agree with that. As I indicated, we will contact the authorities and if doctors need to stay overnight in the small communities, they should. They’ve signed up to work in the small authorities, like the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority, they should expect to overnight in the small communities as well. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I would be willing to have the authorities review that. The reason that we have the system that we do where the health authorities are at the regional level and work closely with the communities, so that they understand the communities, the culture of the communities and so on. If this is happening, it shouldn’t be happening. Individuals will not be turned away from seeing the doctor if there are appointments available. Of course, when you have more than one individual showing up at the same time slot, it would be difficult, but we will do our best to allocate the...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

Mr. Speaker, it would be a standard respite service for individuals that need respite from caring for individuals that need constant care, where the request would go back through the authorities, whether it would be local or regional through the Health and Social Services Authority and asking the home care to do respite care for individuals in a similar line of what is being offered in respite care programs in Yellowknife and other communities where respite care is being offered. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The full expansion of the Territorial Respite Program outside of Yellowknife and into the communities that don’t have any respite services is going to be between $2 million and $3 million. Our Department of Health and Social Services is working with the Department of Finance to assess competing financial pressures and so on in order to look at the expansion, but we do have some services operational and running in small communities outside of Yellowknife too. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

Mahsi Cho, Mr. Speaker… [English translation not provided.]

Today I would like to pay tribute to the late Georgina Biscaye of Fort Resolution. A funeral service was held in her memory yesterday.

Georgina was born June 13, 1961, in Rocher River. Her family moved and settled in Fort Resolution when she was seven years old. Georgina always had fond memories of Rocher River and never forgot where she was born and was proud to remind others.

Georgina passed away surrounded by her family on Thursday, November 1, 2012, at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Georgina was 51 years old.

Georgina discovered she...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

The home care services that are being provided through the authorities and the communities will make a decision on whether or not they’re available to do respite services. All indications are that if respite services are needed in communities where we don’t actually have a respite program, that home care would be able to handle the extra workload of doing respite care, but through an approved process, that they would be able to handle respite care that was needed by individuals at the community level.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

For this planning cycle, for this current business planning process, we are not bringing any new initiatives into the mix, but we are reviewing requests through our presentations to the Standing Committee on Social Programs. After our request on the Standing Committee on Social Programs, we review what they come back with. They write a letter back to the government indicating that these are the areas they want us to look at. We would then examine that and go through the process. But I don’t think respite care was a part of anything that came back from Social Programs. But we are moving through...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

Thank you. We would look at a planned overnight. If a doctor is going into the communities, they can look at the historical appointments in certain communities and if this has become an issue where patients are being turned away from the health centre, but the doctor still leaves on schedule even though they haven’t seen all the patients and that’s the history of that community, then in the future, when doctors go into small communities, they would plan to stay overnight.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 30)

We will have the department work to see those various health authorities and ensure that if doctors are needed overnight, if they have more than just one day worth of appointments when they go into a place like Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake or any of those small communities that have too many appointments for one day. I’m not expecting that the doctor would leave a community – I’m sure the community can accommodate the doctor overnight – and will ensure that doctors that go into the community are prepared to stay overnight. Thank you.