Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services questions about nursing services in the community of Wrigley. I know my colleague from the Mackenzie Delta raised it last week in the House about nursing in our small communities. I know that last term we almost had a deal where nursing services would be provided in the Mackenzie Delta and Wrigley. I just want to know what initiatives has the Health Minister been working on lately in returning these health services to these small communities.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. The way we are approaching all communities to provide what services are needed, we’re trying to use a primary care team, which refers to trying to provide a service in the communities where the services are needed. Right now we are reviewing right from the smallest communities in the North to Yellowknife exactly what services are needed. Right now the standard is that communities that have more than 250 people are eligible for at least two registered nurses. We don’t have a formula to cover communities that have under 250 people. What we’re trying to do is provide a service in those communities on a fly-in basis, bringing nurses into the community and so on.
Through the Primary Care Program what we’re trying to do is provide a service. Perhaps one possibility that we’re trying to examine was to have licenced practical nurses. Perhaps licenced practical nurses could cover off the majority of the nursing that’s needed in communities that have a population under 250.
That’s not the original excuse government gave last term. They said it was a safety issue in Wrigley that they won’t return nurses there. I fought very hard to get an assurance that there’s RCMP dedicated to Wrigley. Then that happened and still government won’t move on nursing for Wrigley. I want to ask the Minister once again, what has his department been doing to work towards returning nursing services to Wrigley.
My assumption of what the last government may have said would be that they have RCMP and nurses in the community for safety reasons, so at the times in which the nurses could potentially be called out in the evening for emergency situations and so on. I don’t know if that was an excuse, but I don’t know if there are RCMP in Wrigley at this time as well.
What I’m saying is that as a department we are looking at each community and what their needs are. We have situations and have reviewed situations. For the amount of work that would be required by a nurse in the communities where there are under 250, with the call-outs and the requirement for nursing in those communities, it was less than what would be needed to have two nurses in the community, two registered nurses. Two registered nurses is the minimum of nurses that would be in a community in order for them to cover off for each other.
We’ve said it on this side of the House many, many times, the time for reviewing is over. You’ve already done those reviews. You know the needs of my communities. When is the Minister going to work towards returning nursing services to Wrigley?
Like I said, we’re going to be working with the communities to look at what is needed. I could stand up and say now that no, we’re not going to put two nurses back in Wrigley because there isn’t enough work for them in that community. However, we don’t want to give that kind of answer. What we want to do is we want to work to see what is needed and provide what is needed, not just put two nurses in a community because that’s what people say is needed in the community. What we’re saying is if there’s a need for less than one nurse, requirement for a job of less than one nurse in a community, maybe we need to have a variety of care workers in a community in order to compensate or cover what is needed in that particular community.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. The last government was willing to do it. What has changed? Why is the Minister giving us a different story?
The last government didn’t do it, though. That’s why it’s still here. We are trying to deal with it now. We are trying to provide a service that’s needed.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
