Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I was discussing the new health care facility in Hay River. My questions today would be for the Minister of Health, pertaining to the new health care centre and our existing hospital. My first question would be: Can the Minister explain to me what the difference between a hospital and health care centre are and is Hay River being downgraded?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Health, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What is being built in Hay River is a modern health centre, and the term “hospital” often refers to what is being provided. Tertiary care is being provided in there. In the health centre we will be providing other types of services. We’re going to have acute care beds in the health centre and emergency beds. Essentially all of the services that are being provided by H.H. Williams will be provided in the health centre. Some of the things that may move offsite could be social services, public health and administration, finance and so on. Aside from that, all of the services that are being provided in the hospital in Hay River now will be provided in the new health centre. Thank you.
In our briefing about the new health care centre, the department indicated that the 10 long-term care beds were not in the current facility design. Will the Minister commit to replacing those beds? We have more demand than we have beds currently in the long-term care facility. So will the Minister commit to that?
Long-term care is not really an appropriate place to be housed in a hospital. The hospital, I guess, is not really an appropriate place to house long-term care, is what I’m trying to say. So what we’re looking at is we do want to take the 10 long-term care beds in the current hospital and move them as part of the overall long-term care units that are being provided in Hay River now.
Right now we are going to be doing a midlife retrofit of the Woodland Manor long-term care facility and that’s going to happen between 2015 and 2020. This hospital is scheduled to start construction this fall and finish over the next couple of years. So we’re trying to time it so that these 10 beds are covered off within Hay River. At the end of the day, those beds will not be lost to the community. Thank you.
My only concerns are he indicated that the facility would be completed before their midterm review for the upgrade of the facility at Woodland Manor. So there’s a year or two where these beds are going to be out in the cold, or these people. Where would we be putting them? I know at Woodland Manor we currently have a wait list. So we’re talking about 10 beds that we’re currently supplying at the hospital and we have a wait list of five. So our demands are at least 15, and like I indicated in my Member’s speech, the aging population in the Northwest Territories and Canada is growing. So our demands for this facility will be higher than what is currently planned for the department. I guess my concern or my question is: How will the Minister close that gap of those dates when the new facility is completed and the upgrades are not completed at Woodland Manor?
The modern health centre in Hay River is scheduled to be completed 100 percent by 2015. We’re going to put into the capital plan, prior to that, the work that is going to be going into Woodland to expand Woodland to accommodate that. So in between I can see where the Member would indicate that there would be some gap. We will be discussing this further with the Members and also with the authority, the local health and social services authority, to close that gap so that people are not out in the cold and those people are accommodated right through the process so that there will always be someplace for them to go, and then eventually lead into the expansion at Woodland or a facility built on the Woodland Manor site that’s closely affiliated with Woodland Manor. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated in my speech, this is important to Hay River, and to seniors that require these long-term beds it’s very important. Can I get the Minister’s commitment of when the department will attend a public meeting and explain to the public of Hay River what is going on with this facility?
The department and I will be going into Hay River before the end of June to have a public meeting and provide the information to the public. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
