Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know that the plan where the plan was before. And I know the Member was very involved in that plan. And I agree that the facility itself, you know, with what he's saying, with the RFP going out, you know, I would encourage if there when the RFP goes out, or encourage that if Indigenous governments are, you know, wanting to look into this area, you know, those are discussions that, you know, we can have. But at this point I guess the RFP will go out for the schematic design and, you know, later to come back with a plan to build, so. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I will repeat myself that we are looking at all the options. I will not put a nurse in front of patients unless we know that this 1,125 hours if it's not necessary, then I'll look at it if it's not necessary. But I don't have the full picture right now so I can't make that decision on the floor here today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following eight documents: Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 47-2(1): Yellowknife Wellness and Recovery Centre; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 78-2(1): Access to Family Doctors Response; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 103-2(1): Alcohol Strategy Implementation Response; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 109-20(1): Extended Health Benefits Policy Response; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 111-20(1): Provision of Health Services to Nunavut Clients; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 148-20(1): Health care in NWT Communities; Follow-up Letter for Oral...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NTHSSA has informed me and the Department of the increase in volume and acuity of patients in Stanton. The thought was that, you know, the -- after COVID, we would go back to pre-COVID in-patient, but what we're seeing are sicker patients and the acuity of these patients. And I understand since 2023, the number of patients has been steadily increasing. That's put pressure on the in-patient and emergency departments. It's led to longer wait times for patients, and it's significantly increasing the work staff load.

I also committed in this House in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the minimum nurse-to-patient ratio are best addressed through the standards of practice that are more easily changed rather than through legislation, which is a similar approach being taken with BC but they are using a policy directive. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work is underway to make changes to the way we deliver primary care in Yellowknife with the goal of improving access. We've heard this from Members in the last sitting. While I will not commit to a specific walk-in clinic, I can assure the Members that we are working to improve access to the primary care in Yellowknife as well as other region as a priority as we know that we are opening up the new clinic in the Liwego'ati Building, which the downtown primary care clinic, and all of these accounts, like, when I talk about staffing workloads in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department is working to improve nurse-to-patient ratios right now in long-term care. However, due to nursing shortages it's important that we use realistic numbers because our staffing levels change so much in the Northwest Territories. And I just want to make sure that it's clear that nurse-to-patient ratios are already in place. This is why when we don't have enough staff, we can't perform essential tasks and sometimes we need to reduce services or temporarily close units because of a matter of patient safety. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for raising this. In the small communities, we you know, we tend to get a lot of concerns we gotten a lot of concerns in this House when I was a Member, and we continue to hear stories but what I can say is we like, I cannot comment on individual cases in this House, but every report that every time there's a complaint, every report that's given to you know, that is put forward is looked into.

The other thing that I wanted to say is, you know, the Office of Client Experience is a new department. It had its oneyear...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for that question. Mr. Speaker, you know, we've heard in this House many times from many members, especially the representatives from the small communities, on health care in the small communities and, you know, we were we're going not just the Northwest Territories but Canada has been struggling with health care service providers, getting hiring permanent nursing, permanent doctors, so I think that there has been some work done. And I've mentioned this, you know, working with the paramedics in the small communities when needed to make...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear. Diabetes is a disease on its own. Kidney disease is a separate disease. It affects the kidneys and it's not you know, it's not the same. So although we have you know, on one hand we have lots of people with diabetes and, yes, we do need and we have those supports in all the communities, like the testing, the medication. But for dialysis, you know, there's other options as well. Like, there's peritoneal dialysis, which we do have I think three patients in the territory. They don't have to move to Yellowknife because of the level that...