Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services today. During the last session I asked questions about the rollout of the Midwifery Program. At that time the Minister indicated that two positions in Hay River were filled and going live in early 2015, which I understand has happened, and the department was actively recruiting to refill a midwife position in Fort Smith. So my first question is about Fort Smith.
Can we get an update on whether that long-vacant position in Fort Smith has been filled? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the position in Fort Smith is still not filled. We’ve attempted to go out and recruit that position a number of times and every recruitment activity has proved unsuccessful. We are intending to fill the position and we continue to go out and recruit and we hope that we do find somebody to fill that position in short order.
At the same time, we have filled the two positions in Hay River. That program has started. They’ve already started meeting with clients and we anticipate that the midwives in Hay River could be facilitating a birth in the community as soon as this month. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. The Minister also indicated last session that the Department of Health and Social Services was consulting with the people in the Inuvik/Beaufort-Delta region, gathering their thoughts about the Midwifery Program. The Minister related that there were a number of challenges and concerns, but he was working through those with the Beau-Del authority.
Can he explain or tell the House when the Midwifery Program in the Beau-Del will be implemented? Mahsi.
We have had some preliminary meetings with staff in the Beaufort-Delta who have been involved in this type of program or who might be involved in birthing services at this time. As the Member has indicated, there have been some challenges raised with the delivery of midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta. To that end, we are looking at envisioning how we are approaching midwifery services in the Beaufort-Delta.
Originally when we came forward, there was a multi-part plan which included set up midwifery services in Hay River, move midwifery services to Beaufort-Delta and then move forward with a territorial program here in Yellowknife. We’re looking at re-envisioning that model and tweaking it a little bit. I had sent the Standing Committee on Social Programs some details about moving forward with a modified plan so we could get a greater degree of midwifery services in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks again to the Minister. On May 6, 2011, the Minister temporarily suspended the successful but understaffed Midwifery Program in Yellowknife, Ndilo and Detah. Rather than choosing to staff the program appropriately, the Minister of the day simply suspended the program, leaving half of our residents in the Northwest Territories with no Midwifery Program at all. After four years, this suspension seems to have become a permanent cancellation.
When will the Minister fulfill the promise and reinstate, in an improved format, the highly valued and much missed Midwifery Program for Yellowknife, Ndilo and Detah? Mahsi.
Just for clarity, the Midwifery Program that was in Yellowknife was never funded. It actually never had core dollars to fund that program. It was funding the authority had taken out of other programs in order to create midwifery services.
I’m still committed to midwifery services, I always have been, which is one of the reasons we are looking at re-envisioning how we roll out midwifery services over the next couple of years.
As I indicated, we had planned to move forward with Beaufort-Delta. Things look like they might be changing. There have been some alternate proposals submitted to us on how to deliver services to the Beaufort-Delta, including one position that could be a nurse practitioner to be an educator, mentor for community health nurses and support them as well as support the physicians who happen to be located in the community.
What we would like to do is move forward with a territorial model based out of Yellowknife beginning planning in 2015-16 so we could have a full rollout in 2016-17 and midwifery services. We envision it as being a multi-part program, the territorial program, and it would be reasonable to locate that program out of Yellowknife in order to enable a broader scope of services to the women who may utilize those services.
It would also be a program that could support all communities throughout the Northwest Territories by providing expertise, guidance to community health nurses who happen to be involved with the pre- and postnatal services throughout the Northwest Territories.
The second part would actually be supporting birthing in Yellowknife for individuals who wish to have midwifery support in Yellowknife. So, a multi-part program. I have sent a letter outlining this opportunity to the Standing Committee on Social Programs, and before we move in that direction I am looking forward to their feedback and support. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that. I look forward to that getting in place with the timing you’ve given us. Over the years, while this has been going on actual Midwifery Program positions have languished unfulfilled, as the Minister knows.
My final question is: What did we do with the hundreds of thousands of unspent midwifery salary dollars approved by this Assembly for the introduction and staffing of midwifery programs across the NWT? Mahsi.
We did actually create a midwifery coordinator position in the department that unfortunately has gone through the revolving door as well, been filled, then vacant, then filled, then vacant. That position is a key position and a lot of the funds have gone to support the planning and operational design as well as consultation in communities and whatnot. So a significant number of things were done.
There aren’t hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars that have lapsed, but we are in a position, changing direction and moving forward with this new model, we may have an opportunity to utilize funds in a different way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
