Is committee agreed that we have concluded consideration of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Thank you to the Minister. Thank you to your witness. If the Sergeant-at-Arms would escort the witness from the Chamber.
We will move on to the Department of Health and Social Services. It is section 6 in your document. Minister, do you have witnesses you would like to bring into the Chamber? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you escort the witnesses – Sorry. I always forget this. Does the committee agree that we will have the witnesses enter the Chamber?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you escort the witnesses into the Chamber, please?
Mr. Beaulieu, could you introduce your witnesses for us, please?
Thank you, Madam Chair. To my right I have the deputy minister, Debbie DeLancey, Health and Social Services. To my left, the assistant deputy minister, Derek Elkin.
Thank you, Minister. Committee, we are open for general comments. Are there any general comments on the Department of Health and Social Services? Seeing none, we will move on to detail. We will bypass the department summary on page 6-2 and move to page 6-4, Health and Social Services, activity summary, health services programs, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $28.089 million. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to follow up on the Stanton facility, the work going on at Stanton. Some of these things could have gone into general comments but, obviously, we have not done a good job in the past and we’ve let slip many opportunities.
I’m very glad to see we’re finally starting to get in gear and get a program going to catch up with this territorial facility where the needs are, I’m sure – according to the employee, I’m sure we could hear them say desperate – there are many patients across the NWT who would echo that, so I’m very glad to see this happening.
I’m wondering, I don’t see past expenditures here and I believe the proposal is to move into phase two. Have we actually had expenditures on phase one, capital expenditures on phase one? Does anybody know? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. For the prior year’s expenses, I believe is what the Member is referring to, I can get the assistant deputy minister to respond to that.
Thank you, Minister Beaulieu. Mr. Elkin.
In prior years the money was approved as planning study funding through the Department of Public Works and Services. There was $800,000 in current year plus $200,000 from Health for the current planning study. That doesn’t show up in the capital allocations. It’s under O and M under DPW.
Thank you, Mr. Elkin. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you. That was the information I was looking for. I appreciate that response. If I could get just a plain language description of what sort of planning is being funded for the proposed fiscal year and the next fiscal year. I know that hospitals are particularly challenging, complex and demanding, and if I could get just a brief description of what sort of planning is being done over the next fiscal year. Thank you.
The next two years of funding is to take the schematic design from the planning study to cost the estimate. We’re going out for tender to a design consultant and that will take about a year and a half to do the schematic design.
Some of the tours we’ve had of the hospital and talking to the CEO there and so on, there needs to be a lot of sort of functional studies done on what departments in the hospital need to be adjacent to each other and so on. A lot of that can result in highly increased efficiency of operations and so on; the lack of it, of course, increases costs. I’m wondering, has that work been done. Has that work been done or is that being done in our current fiscal year? It’s obviously not part of the schematic plans. It doesn’t seem like it would be, but I’d be interested to know that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. That work is being done with the people at Stanton and it’s part of the planning study that’s in progress at this time.
Just to complete that for me, will that be completed this fiscal year before the schematic design and the next steps are begun? Thank you.
Yes, that work will be completed.
That’s all I had. I think it might be interesting for committee to get a briefing on the functional aspect of it since we have had some briefings that suggest that that is important to the successful operation of the hospital. I will ask for that at a later time, but thank you for that information.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is about the territorial electronic medical records system. Can I just get an overview of what that system will entail and how it’s going to be implemented?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m going to have Deputy Minister DeLancey respond to that.
Thank you, Minister. Ms. DeLancey.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The electronic medical record, to try to put it in plain language, is something that has been identified as a priority across Canada and is being promoted and funded by the Canada Health Infoway, which is the federal government’s organization that looks at eHealth or telehealth opportunities. What it is is it’s basically a planning tool and a recordkeeping tool for physicians and other health care practitioners where when they meet with a patient they can enter notes into it. They can use it to upload information into an electronic health record. It really is, in many ways, a cornerstone of providing improved access to services for our residents. What it does is it will allow a physician, for example, to set rules or set reminders, so if you have a patient with a chronic disease, the physician can remember when certain tests are needed or when to call people back for appointments. It can have clinical practice guidelines in there and it also provides a health care practitioner the opportunity to send a consultation or a question or a referral electronically to a physician in another community. Basically what it is, it will become an electronic record of an individual’s health care status and history, but also it can be an interactive tool that will allow practitioners in different communities to work together to bring service to patients faster.
Thank you, Ms. DeLancey. Mr. Bouchard.
A follow-up question on that program. So that is the program that’s already out there and we’re just piggybacking with the federal government, or is this something we’re creating on our own?
It is something that we are creating on our own. It is something that’s being rolled out at different paces in different jurisdictions in Canada. In most other provinces where physicians have private clinics it’s done on a clinic basis. We are trying to roll it out on a territory-wide basis, so we have an opportunity, again, to provide service in all our communities by having one common electronic medical records system for all the health centres and facilities in the Territories.
That’s good to hear. I’ve heard that there are difficulties with sharing information and this system will allow that, of sharing information from the local hospital authority to the territorial Stanton Hospital.
The Member is correct; it will facilitate sharing of information. We will still have some legal barriers, and we have done a lot of work and continue to look at bringing in health information legislation that will help to facilitate sharing of information between health authorities. This EMR will provide the tool that will allow that information to be shared, but we still need the policies and legislation to deal with protection of privacy issues.
I’m just wondering about this electronic medical recordkeeping system. Are there prepackaged systems out there or are we creating it from scratch? Will we be able to use northern contractors for this service?
There are a number of vendors in Canada that sell prepackaged systems and the department is currently working to look at what’s out there, which systems might suit our needs. There may be opportunity for some northern support in terms of implementation and adaptation, but the vendors are pretty much bigger national or international firms.
As far as the assessment of the prepackaged systems that are out there, is that included in these costs of the system?
Yes, it is.
That’s all for now, thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. I have no one else on the list. Any other comments on page 6-4? Health and Social Services, activity summary, health services programs, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $28.089 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We’ll turn to page 6-7, Health and Social Services, activity summary, community health programs, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $8.1 million.
Agreed.
Okay, committee, we’ll now return to page 6-2, department summary, Health and Social Services, infrastructure investment summary, total infrastructure investment summary, $36.189 million.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Are we agreed we have concluded the Department of Health and Social Services?
Agreed.
Thank you to the Minister, thank you to the witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Hawkins.
Madam Chair, I move that we report progress.
---Carried
I will now rise and report progress
