Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of weeks ago I wrote a letter to the Minister of Health and Social Services to express to her my concern about a constituent of mine. This constituent had a very severe stroke about 10 months ago. Since that time, he has been cared for at Stanton Territorial Hospital and is currently in the ICU department. I had an opportunity to visit with my constituent last night. His partner is advocating for him. They would like to see him transferred to a facility that could assist him in being the recipient of physical rehabilitation as a result of this stroke. It’s my understanding that there is nothing more that can be done for him at the Stanton hospital. We do not have a neurosurgeon on staff at Stanton. I would like to ask the Minister if there is any encouraging news that I could share with my constituents with respect to this gentleman’s care.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member communicated this to me a couple of weeks ago, I believe. We are in the process of looking into that. Obviously, we don’t normally talk about individual medical situations here, but the Member did provide detailed information about the status of the situation and what the family is looking for. I’d like to just tell the Member that generally it is a practice for us to review a patient’s situation to see if the care being provided is acceptable or good, where we are doing it. If other options should be considered, we will be doing that. So I will confirm with the Member that this situation is being reviewed and what options we have. Given that this person is in ICU, it may be that person needs more ICU care and may not be able to be moved to some of the long-term care facilities.
I realize that we don’t normally discuss the details or specifics of a particular patient or particular constituent, but I believe that this is a situation where someone needs to advocate on behalf of this constituent. He has been in the ICU department of Stanton for 10 months now. It is becoming very stressful for his partner to continue to travel from Hay River every weekend to be with him. His medical circumstances are unique. The family has signed a consent, a waiver, a release for medical information to be shared with myself as MLA. It really speaks to the desperation of the situation. I appreciate the care that he is getting, but he is going to require very specialized care.
I’d like to ask the Minister what this government’s policy is. It’s my understanding they’re having a difficult time finding a rehab facility that will take him, because at night he’s required to be put on a ventilator and a lot of rehab facilities will only take people who do not require assistance with breathing. For him it’s only during the night when he’s sleeping, when he goes into a deep sleep. If there were a medical facility in the U.S., because I understand that there is a possibility of that, what is our government’s policy with respect to covering the cost of something like that?
Broadly speaking, we will first look at what services we have within the Territories, because we do want to keep our residents in the Territories as much as possible. We do know that we have at least a couple dozen patients from the territories in various jurisdictions all across Canada. I’m not aware of anybody that we have sent to the States. The decision on where to send the person will depend on what comparable services are available and we would try to find care for the patient closest to home as much as possible. So we would first look at southern jurisdictions before we would consider the US.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Short, final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am certainly not a doctor. There may be circumstances about this case that I am not familiar with. Having visited my constituent, he is certainly very alert mentally. He has mobility within his limbs. He can move his arms, he can move his legs, he can respond, nod his head. It seems like the unique and troubling part of it is his inability to continue breathing once he falls into a deep sleep. I know there are medical advances all the time that have to do with neurology. I’m asking the Minister to please commit to attempting to get this patient out of Stanton where he has been languishing -- I mean, he’s receiving good care, but not the kind of care he needs -- for the last 10 months. Would she commit to getting involved personally and seeing if he can be transferred to a facility with more resources?
Yes, I would be happy to do that and get back to the Member as soon as possible.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
