Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just want to follow up on my Member’s statement with regard to dental emergencies in the community and just to highlight the urgency. I just got another incident in terms of dental emergencies, so I’d like to bring that up with the Minister. What is the current and existing guideline that governs dental emergencies in the community?
The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is that dental emergencies would be handled in the same way as any other medical emergency. When they present themselves to our local health facilities, the health care professionals in those facilities would examine them and make appropriate calls as to the treatment and plan of action. So dental emergencies are considered medical emergencies.
I also appreciate the information the Member has given me about a particular constituent, which I am in the process of following up on.
I think I’ll just speak to the medical emergencies in the smaller communities, as well as the need to develop a policy. I’d just like to know what current plan or what strategy the Minister’s office is going to develop with regard to developing a policy.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say, for the record, that I appreciated the opportunity to see first-hand and hear first-hand the challenges that the residents in small communities have with respect to dental care. For our aboriginal people it is covered by the NIHB services, but we have not been able to obtain service providers. There are lots of dentists and dental clinics in the North who have not taken up the opportunity to bid on this contract, in particular for the Deh Cho region. They had a challenge in obtaining a contract, and I believe only in the last month were they able to find a dentist who was willing to travel to those communities from Quebec. I’m hoping that with a new contract out, the contractor will be able to enhance our services there.
I’m very happy to see that the Ministry is working toward assisting the people in need in the communities.
Just once again, what type of guideline or policy is in place currently within the department for dealing with situations like this?
Once again, I think that dental emergencies are handled as any other medical emergency. I would expect that the health care professional in Fort Liard right now is responding to that situation.
On the larger picture of providing dental services to people in our communities, the service level in the Deh Cho region for the last number of months has suffered because we did not have a service provider. Now, with a new contractor in place, we are hoping we can increase the services there.
On the larger picture, I learned a lot about the requirements for additional dental service, and especially dental service for aboriginal children. It will be something I will be bringing up with the federal Minister of Health, because I think they could do a lot more to step up and be more stringent and more committed to this service to our aboriginal peoples.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. McLeod.
