Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am following up to my statement today. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As I stated in my Member’s statement, the last time I brought this issue up with jaundice and the lack of a BiliBlanket being available or having an extra one on hand at the Inuvik Regional Hospital was brought up in February 2013. I was wondering what kind of updates have been happening since then in terms of looking at securing extra equipment such that somebody who does come in that needs a BiliBlanket that we have one extra one on hand. Can I ask the Minister for an update? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In most cases the neonatal jaundice is treated with light therapy and the BiliBlanket is one of the tools that may be used to support individuals that are suffering from jaundice. It’s a clinical choice by the physician providing the service, providing the treatment, whether they use the BiliBlanket or another source. We don’t direct the physicians to use any particular tool. However, I have talked to the department and I have asked for some specific information on the number of BiliBlankets that are available to residents of the Northwest Territories. As soon as I get that information, I will happily share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the photo therapy from the BiliBlankets actually helps reduce the bilirubin that is built up when the decrease in red blood cells happen. If there is no immediate action taken, that build-up of the bilirubin can become very harmful to the infant. Hence, we have the medevacs.
The cost of the BiliBlanket is about $4,000. If you put the costs associated with a medevac, which is thousands of dollars, why wouldn’t the Minister look at purchasing more BiliBlankets through the Northwest Territories rather than continue to possibly send more medevacs out? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I’m certainly going to have to follow up with the department to ask some additional questions and get some more information for the Member. The BiliBlankets offer the possibility to treat some degrees of jaundice at home for otherwise healthy babies. I acknowledge that there are some advantages here, but there are other methods of treatment as well.
In the Northwest Territories, unlike the rest of the country where the statistical prevalence of this particular condition is about 50 percent in babies, in the Northwest Territories, fortunately our statistics are significantly lower. In 2007-08 it was about 7 percent of babies. It has gone up a little bit, so that for 2011-12 it is about 13 percent of babies.
I acknowledge that there is certainly an opportunity here. I am certainly willing to have additional conversation with the Member. If there are opportunities for cost savings for those babies who the BiliBlanket will work for, I’m certainly willing to explore that with the authorities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Just in terms of the information the Minister is seeking and mentioning that he’s going to commit to, I just want to confirm commitment that he will get a full inventory of BiliBlankets that we have in the Northwest Territories and for the regions and whether he will look at doing something in the smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I commit to getting that information for the Member. As far as providing BiliBlankets in the additional communities, we need to figure out what the rate of prevalence of this particular condition is and figure out the cost balance analysis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Mr. Bromley.
