Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member’s statement, I just want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services a couple questions on the Medical Travel Policy.
In terms of one of our NWT residents who might travel to a regional centre or to here in Yellowknife either for personal or business type of travel and they end up getting sick or succumb to illness where they have to be admitted into the hospital or be under some type of observation over a couple days and they have to take care of their travel back, what does the policy state in terms of taking care of any type of accommodation or other travel in order to get the residents back to their communities?
Thank you, Mr. Moses. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Medical Travel Policy is for patients who require medical travel to the nearest location where necessary and appropriate insured services are available, so if a resident were to travel to Yellowknife from a community or from outside of Yellowknife and they happened to get sick while they’re in Yellowknife, there is no transportation required to bring them to the closest location where the insured services can be provided because they already happen to be in Yellowknife. If the patient is then discharged and is able to travel on a commercial flight, there is no requirement under medical travel to provide the patient with travel because they would have come in without medical travel and they can leave without medical travel. But we do recognize that there are exceptional circumstances, and there is an exception request process that an individual can follow based on situations beyond individuals’ control of if a person needs special care on their transportation back. There is an exception process available to residents of the Northwest Territories for the type of situation the Member is describing.
You heard earlier in another Member’s statement about the work that NGOs do on behalf of people of the Northwest Territories, and in some cases NGOs have to cut costs where they can or make savings where they can, so sometimes they don’t pay for a full flight return ticket back to their communities. Sometimes they’re not able to make those changes if they get a ticket on a seat sale or something. Those are some of the issues the come, because some people that do come to some of the bigger centres might be on a fixed income, should it be a senior, somebody living with a disability or somebody that is doing volunteer work on behalf of an NGO that might be on income assistance that don’t have the necessary funds to do it.
In the Medical Travel Policy group – I know they’re following their guidelines and their policies – is there an appeals process? I know the Minister mentioned there’s an exception process, but is there an appeals process to the decision made for residents of the NWT when they’re travelling outside of their home communities to get that turned over so that they are able to get some support to get back home?
As I’ve previously committed in the House, we are doing a comprehensive review and modifications to the Medical Travel Policy, and these are the types of discussions we’re having and we’ll certainly continue to have them with the Member and his committee.
The exception requests are done on a case-by-case basis. They have to come from a practitioner, but in situations like this, if the Member identifies to the practitioner or the resident identifies to the practitioner the need and the situation behind, they can absolutely make an exception request and it will be considered seriously. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister mentioned the exception process of going through the practitioner. Can the Minister confirm the process for an exceptional grant to get the necessary accommodations or travel for a resident to get back home? Can he confirm that the patient, resident or family of the resident would go through the process of getting a letter or note from the practitioner in order to get these extra expenses paid that are unforeseen should an individual fall sick or need some medical attention while on a trip? Can he confirm that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The resident who happens to be utilizing the services would have to work with the practitioner and then we would follow the normal medical travel process with respect to the exception request.
If a resident comes to Yellowknife, happens to get sick and is admitted to the hospital and then has to be transferred to another hospital in their home community, they would actually be covered. It’s when the individual is discharged or free to go where this is a situation. The resident would have to work through their practitioner and follow the normal medical travel process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, these are unforeseen medical concerns or issues that might come up at any given time.
What is the turnaround date in any of these appeals or exceptional processes? Is there a timeline? A lot of times they might just need one, two or three days of assistance. What is the timeline in the turnover to get these expenses covered or any of the additional supports the resident or patient might need? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Exception requests are done on a case-by-case basis, recognizing the challenges that the patient and the practitioners provide. I can’t say it would be one day, I can’t say it would be three days. It all depends on the situation, but they would move as quickly as they can to accommodate the needs of the residents and the practitioners to make sure they get the support they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
