Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke on the health transformation initiatives that became an effort that the Department of Health have worked on for some time. My question is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. For those listening at home, can the Minister describe some of the real changes that will be brought about in small communities by the move to a single health authority? For example, how will a visit to the health centre be different for the average patient? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that's a very complex question because every case and every situation that comes into a health centre will be different dependent on the different conditions that a citizen or a resident may be presenting with. In the Member's statement, I think he actually answered a number of the questions for himself, I mean, things that are reality. We know this is going to improve healthcare in the Northwest Territories.
We are working on a strategic plan, or rather, the authority, with input from the regional wellness councils, is developing a strategic plan that is going to set the direction for the provision of services. That includes a voice from the people in the small communities on how to tailor programs to meet the needs of individuals.
Also, Mr. Speaker, as has been said over and over again, the patient experience will improve as a result of removing some of the barriers that they experience today. Information will be able to be shared within a circle of care between authorities where it has been really difficult to do that in the past. We have had individuals who have had multiple needles when now they will be able to get away with one, which personally, I prefer, and I think everybody who is getting a needle would prefer.
Mr. Speaker, the authority, the single authority, has developed the framework to conduct an investigation of their implementation, which will be done in 2018, and they will have another report outlining the outcomes that they are seeing, which will be done in 2019. This is going to help us inform future direction and continue to evolve as we go on. But the system is about better healthcare, better future, better results for residents across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
The Minister seemed to suggest that I have answered my own questions. The question verges on the complexities of the healthcare system and also highlights the differences. In my understanding, the initiative towards the health transformation is to alleviate those differences and try to come to some commonality in terms of bringing better service to communities. This change was brought about by the recently established Territorial Health Authority. What is the protocol for constituents who want to raise a concern with the healthcare service they have received?
I think this is an incredibly important question. In order to improve healthcare in the Northwest Territories, it is going to take all of us working together. One of the challenges we have had in the past, where we had multiple authorities often competing for resources, is we had a difficulty with quality control. We would hire a quality control individual at an authority, and if that person left, then we had no quality control in that authority. As a single authority, we have more individuals involved in quality control who can provide backfill when a certain individual or an individual leaves a region.
What I would like the Member to do, as all Members, I would like the Member and myself, everybody in this House, to encourage our residents when they are having challenges in the healthcare system to engage the quality control system, share their stories so that they can be investigated and we can learn from them. We can make real meaningful improvements in the health and social services system here. I believe I have shared those quality control numbers with my colleagues. If I haven't, I will commit to doing so again, so that we can work together to encourage our residents to engage quality control to help make real improvements moving forward.
The final question is: what is the role of the regional wellness councils? The Minister seems to highlight that, you know, more the system to really try to improve the system, but at the same time ensuring that residents have access to good quality healthcare. We also have Regional Wellness Councils. What is the role of the leadership council in such a situation?
The regional wellness councils are regional representatives who are responsible for helping bring the voice of the people to the authority. First, to help make programs specific within individual regions, but also through the chair of the individual Regional Wellness Councils to bring that voice to the territorial authority to make sure that every region, every community's voice is heard at a territorial level.
I have had an opportunity to meet many if not all of the members of the regional wellness councils. We have unfortunately had a little bit of turnover already. We are looking to go find a couple of members where a couple have resigned. They have all been trained. I have encouraged them through the territorial council to talk to their residents, to get the feedback, to be a voice, to be somebody people can go to and talk to, in addition to the quality assurance staff, to make sure that the voices are heard.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it seems very clear that the Minister is committed to improving the services of the healthcare system, the wellbeing of the residents of the NWT. He seems to emphasize that we are going to have a better product.
However, my final question is: if we are really focusing on the idea of quality control, has that position been filled for the regions to ensure that there is such a unit or a position out there that they will ensure that residents with healthcare concerns can raise it with this position or this unit to ensure that, indeed, we have good quality healthcare systems? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the positions exist. We have filled positions. We have had people resign. We have had turnover. Some are more stable than others. We are committed to filling the positions. We continue to move forward to fill those positions when incumbents do leave. Our goal is to have those positions full at all times. They are not currently all full. We are recruiting where they are vacant.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
