Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, after last sitting, I was informed by the Minister that we would not be purchasing a portable ultrasound machine for the Fort Simpson Health Centre. This was a little frustrating because the existing ultrasound is not working properly. Can the Minister explain why the portable ultrasound machine was deemed unnecessary for the Fort Simpson Health Centre? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first off, I have to apologize. There was clearly some confusion and there have been some changes. The existing portable ultrasound in the Fort Simpson Health Centre is out-dated, as the Member has identified, and is actually scheduled to be replaced with a new portable ultrasound machine this summer. We’re hoping that we’ll have one in place by the end of June 2017, barring any unforeseen challenges with purchase and delivery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for that answer. That’s great to hear, but I was understanding that the portable ultrasound machine was not being purchased and the existing ultrasound wasn’t working. Can the Minister clarify: do we have a portable ultrasound machine and a standard ultrasound machine in the centre?
As I’ve already indicated, the existing portable ultrasound in the Fort Simpson Health Centre is out-dated and needs to be replaced. It will be replaced. We’re hoping to have that portable ultrasound on-site by the end of June, barring any challenges with delivery and/or purchasing.
During my constituency term and in my conversations with expectant mothers, it has been brought to my attention that the health centre doesn’t actually use the ultrasound machine. They actually have to send them to Yellowknife. Can the Minister make a commitment or work with myself and the regional authority to get the staff trained so that we can actually have these ultrasound machines in place so that we can save some money and save time for the residents?
There does seem to be some continued confusion and I’m happy to sit down with the Member to talk, but I’d like to clarify for the Member that the ultrasound machine at Fort Simpson is not the kind used by sonographers to perform diagnostic tests. Rather, the machine at Simpson, the portable ultrasound machine, is the kind that is used by doctors and nurse practitioners and midwives at the bedside to help them make immediate decisions about patient care; things such as checking someone in an accident has internal bleeding or to check to see if a baby is in breach. Establishing a full diagnostic ultrasound service in a new site is a very complex undertaking with issues across the board.
As background, Mr. Speaker, sonographers have been identified as one of the leading health and social services positions that are hard to recruit. It’s almost impossible to find these individuals who can do the full diagnostic using the full ultrasound machines. We continue to struggle to find sonographers at the two locations where we do have full ultrasound machines. However, with the more established NWT Health and Social Services Authority, we have the opportunity to make sure that we’re using our resources and diagnostic services in areas such as ultrasound to their full capacity, and that means reviewing the care that is being provided to see if there’s any opportunity.
Can I commit that we’ll have a full ultrasound machine in Simpson? I can’t. We would need to do an analysis on demand. If you’re going to hire a sonographer, you want them working basically full-time on providing those deep diagnostic tests, which is not something that is available in Simpson. The demand is not high enough to justify a full sonographer, which is a hard-to-recruit position. I will commit to looking at it at a territorial level and seeing if there are any opportunities for other places where demand might be higher to see what opportunities exist for rolling out a greater range of sonography services across the territory.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for his answer. That’s reassuring because, when we talked about the new boards and the new authorities, we’re talking about utilizing positions, transferring them around. Can the Minister make a commitment, and he’s already made a commitment, but to the year cost analysis to show us that what would it cost to bring a machine into the community regional centres so we don’t have to ship our people to Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As the territorial authority looks at expanding services at any point in the Northwest Territories, we would have to build a business case and justify any decisions which are being made, which will obviously include costs analyses and those types of things. I just do not want to set any false impressions.
At this point, a sonography machine, an ultrasound machine for deep exams, things like hearts and deep analysis, is a very expensive piece of machinery that can only be operated by a sonographer. If we are to put these very expensive machines in communities and then only use them occasionally because of demand, we would be losing money or we would be spending money poorly and not to maximum benefit. That does not mean that what you are suggesting is impossible, but we would have to do the business case, we would have to do the work.
With a single authority, we are positioned to do that with some exceptions. I mean, Hay River, as previously described, is a challenge because they have not moved into the singleauthority model, and we have work that we need to do there, as well. There is lots of work that still needs to be done, but, with the single authority, we have the mechanism to do this work to better and improve the quality of care for residents of the Northwest Territories.
