Debates of October 26, 2004 (day 28)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question will be to the Minister of Health and Social Services and I will refer back to my Member’s statement as I’ve said earlier with my concerns about the waiting period. Mr. Speaker, my question to the Minister is what is the Department of Health and Social Services doing about waiting times and what are they doing to supply reasonable tools for those staff who work there in the emergency room and I consider, at this time, human resources important tools to get the job done? What is the Minister doing about this problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Return To Question 305-15(3): Emergency Room Wait Times

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, back in the 14th Assembly there was, I think, over $8 million voted by this Assembly as interim health professions to allow us to better staff our health professions. The majority of that money went into Yellowknife with the nurses, doctors, more specialists. We currently have 29 GP positions in Yellowknife and 22, I believe, are specialist positions. We are also working at better coordinating our referral processes, our medical travel. We are adding nurse practitioners. So we’re investing significantly across the board to deal with waiting times, not only in Yellowknife, but I want to point out we also have significant challenges in small communities where oftentimes we have trouble getting a full complement of nurses where communities are reduced to emergency services because of the inability to get qualified community nurses. So there are challenges across the system and we are making efforts on all those fronts. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 305-15(3): Emergency Room Wait Times

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can appreciate the fact that the Minister gave me a little bit of a history lesson on the 14th Assembly, Mr. Speaker, but we’re a year into the 15th Assembly and I can appreciate that the 14th had priorities as well. Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about real life waiting times. I’m talking about where people have to wait six or eight hours. If you are a mother with a child who has to go get them fed, you just can’t sit there and wait; or you’re a senior, you can’t sit there forever. Mr. Speaker, I’m talking about dealing with the six or eight-hour service delivery. What is the Minister specifically doing to address those problems? This is the same Minister for the past four years. Could the Minister answer that? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 305-15(3): Emergency Room Wait Times

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, it’s only three years, just for the record. Mr. Speaker, I’ve articulated and tried to lay out some of the things we are doing. The other thing we are also doing is we’re looking at right now planning for a major midlife upgrading renovation at Stanton. One of those key pieces being looked at is the emergency room and how it’s structured in terms of the actual physical layout. Mr. Speaker, we’ve also, over the last number of years, put out a book, “Do I Need to See a Nurse or a Doctor?” and it was sent to every household in the Northwest Territories. Plus we’ve also instituted the 1-800 number to give 24-hour-a-day access to qualified medical advice for anybody in the Northwest Territories in most official languages, should they need an initial point of call to get an assessment of what the circumstances may be that they think requires medical attention. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 305-15(3): Emergency Room Wait Times

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister raises a couple good points about the book and the 1-800 number and he’s probably very right that they do serve a purpose, because I’ve even used the book and I haven’t had the pleasure of using the 1-800 number yet, but they are services. But, Mr. Speaker, the book has been out for at least two years and the 1-800 number service has been out since the spring of this year. Mr. Speaker, we are still dealing with six and eight-hour waiting periods. Mr. Speaker, I can’t refer to it too much, but there is a survey being done by this hospital at this time and it doesn’t talk about waiting times. It talks about satisfaction, cleanliness, politeness, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but it doesn’t talk about waiting times. Mr. Speaker, will this Minister address the waiting times that people have to go through sitting in the waiting room and then in the examining room to get services? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 305-15(3): Emergency Room Wait Times

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe we are making all reasonable efforts to do just that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Third supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Supplementary To Question 305-15(3): Emergency Room Wait Times

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My apologies, I didn’t hear that, but I will go into my last one. Will the Minister be willing to commit to looking into the problem of waiting times, as well as possibly addressing this problem directly by putting another doctor in this emergency room because the nurses need a doctor to do the job that they do? So would the Minister commit to looking at that problem today? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 305-15(3): Emergency Room Wait Times

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we have this discussion and question and answer period in this House there are staff making note of the concerns, and I will make note of the concerns and I will assure the Member that I will be talking about them with the public administrator and the CEO of Stanton to make sure that we are covering and making all reasonable efforts, covering all our bases and if we’re not, if there are gaps, then, yes, I will look at how to address and have those filled. Thank you.