Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the need to support first responders. I was really highlighting about the importance in the communities, how they need that type of support. Without those first responders, whether you are in Ulukhaktok, Gameti or, certainly, Lutselk’e, first responders provide a critical role. If they are untrained, they put themselves as well as the person they are trying to help at great risk.
Knowing that every community deserves some type of support, is the Minister of Health aware in some manner or such of what type of program exists to help support training for first responders from the Department of Health point of view? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are various programs available to train first responders. The Government of the NWT has developed an interdepartmental advisory committee that is actually led by MACA that includes the Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, and Health and Social Services. We are looking at all of the various areas to see what would be the best way to provide that type of training to possible first responders in the communities. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I’m glad to hear that there is an interdepartmental committee. This is actually the first time I have heard of this particular case. This issue has been brought forward to me by a particular person who is very familiar with the communities and said that as such, as I mentioned, Kirk Hughes had to step up to the plate where there were gaps.
What can the Minister of Health and Social Services do to help step up to the plate on this particular issue to demonstrate some leadership in communities where we don’t have first responders but we have equipment, so if an incident does happen, we have people who have skills and abilities who can respond properly and safely? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, like I said, we are looking at that. We need to cost the whole project out. It would be a fairly expensive proposition, because inside the first responders, we are also talking about how we get to the individual, and that would mean ground ambulance. We are also talking about remote areas where it’s not coming by highway and how we’re going to be able to respond to that as well.
We need to examine this. We need to develop some cost implications to our decisions and then move forward from there. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I look for clarification on the official record from the Minister. By all means, I really hope I’m wrong on this particular case, but I have been informed that community health nurses at their health stations have no ability to leave their station to provide health care if there’s an incident on the highway or within close proximity. Maybe the Minister could help shed some light on that particular case. If it is a rumour out there or misinterpretation, maybe he can help put that to rest. The fact is we want to make sure people are helping.
Are nurses hamstrung or nurse practitioners not allowed to offer services and help in incidences? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that is an issue, there is no doubt about it. We don’t have the nurses that can go out to a site. If there is an accident or anything right now, the nurses are not the people that end up at the site. I think it has happened in the past, but there are some barriers to nurses going out, leaving their stations to go out to an accident site or a location or to somebody who may be very sick. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been quite fortunate as I’ve grown up and had many courses and training, and offered training as an instructor for first response types of techniques. I have even had the few occasions of waiting out in the Mackenzie to help people who have been in serious jeopardy. But I couldn’t have done that without these types of skills through St. John Ambulance and Royal Life Saving Society and many other types of support mechanisms along the way. The reason I describe it that way is, without that type of support and confidence, you can’t just do that.
What can the Health Minister do today and not allow this problem be governed by committee, because we all know what that means. What can the Minister do today to help support small communities who have equipment, who want to do the right thing? Let’s see how we can empower them. What type of leadership can the Minister provide on this issue? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, this particular situation has occurred recently and has occurred in the past. We’ve responded to it in various ways. Right now there is no actual requirement for a nurse to go out and go onto the site of an accident, for example. We will, as a department, deal with this situation, because we would like to be able to respond as well. This is why we are looking at a possible way of trying to develop some first responders in the community that can do that work for us. We will work with the authorities and give direction to the authorities to work with our interdepartmental advisory committee to be able to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
