Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, recognizing that we do take the concerns raised by the Privacy Commissioner very seriously, we continue to move forward on those recommendations. The report was based on a previous fiscal year. Some things have changed since then and before she made her report. We do take her concerns very seriously.
In the past four months, we have hired a new chief health privacy officer, and they have been engaged in discussions across the government and in clinical settings. Coming out of these meetings and discussions, suggestion on how to improve some of the processes and services have clearly been identified by front-line practitioners, clinicians, and others. We are moving forward with those.
In the authorities, every staff member will be trained. Right now, a large number of people have been trained. Our commitment is to get every person trained because every person has a responsibility under the Health Information Act. Every person has a responsibility. We will get that training done. We will get that training rolled out.
At a regional level, the CEOs have the primary accountability for the information in their regional offices. They have a relationship with our chief information officer. There are some shared responsibilities at a regional level. There are some clear responsibilities. At the end of the day, every person has a responsibility under the Health Information Act. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you. The Minister mentioned the potential need to simplify the legislation. Is that something the department is looking into? Will it be part of their legislative agenda for this fiscal year? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, through the deputy, I have asked the deputy to have our chief health information officer reach out to the Information and Privacy Commissioner to get some ideas from her on what areas we might be able to amend or tweak in order to provide some of that clarity. I am not 100 per cent convinced that it requires legislative change. We might be able to do the same things through a plain-language-type document or other means. We are exploring those right now to see what is the most expeditious and simple for our residents to make sure that they have an understanding of the act.
It may result in some legislative changes. It may not. We are going to reach out to the privacy commissioner to get their sense. We are going to try to come up with a plan to help make it clear to our residents as best we can. I am not going to commit to legislative change at this point because the work hasn't been done to determine whether that is the best avenue at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Mr. Testart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is the last component of this work. It is good that staff are being trained. I think the training becomes complicated when the legislation is complicated. If the Minister is getting the training done, I expect we will see a decrease in complaints under the act and breaches under the act. What resources are being dedicated towards public education on patient rights under the legislation? I know the Minister just spoke to that work ongoing, but what dedicated resources are in this budget to support that work because it is an important component that is missing from the current information regime in our health system. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Testart. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I don't mean to be a doom-and-gloom kind of guy, but as we get more of our people trained and fully up to speed on the Health Information Act, a couple of different things could happen. One of the things that could happen is our staff might be more aware of some of the things or breaches that have been occurring in the past. If they are identified, I hope they are reported to the Privacy Commissioner. There is a chance that as people become more educated, they might be aware that breaches have been occurring. They are reported. We fix them. It is conceivable that could happen, given that we had eight authorities doing things in their own ways for a long time. I think we need to be aware that this work might result in what could be perceived as bad news but may ultimately be good news.
We are working through the health information officers' office to get information that is available, to go to the public to help them understand their rights. We have forms and all of those types of things that are available when a patient goes in to see a practitioner. It helps them understand. We hear from people that it needs to be a little bit clearer. We are working to do that. We have a budget in this area, and that is what those budgets are for, is to do this work, and we will get that work done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Time is up, Mr. Testart. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would like to follow up on my colleague's questions by giving a couple of specific examples of where there seem to be technological deficiencies in the current electronic medical record system. One is about patients opting out. Apparently, there is no way for them to opt out of electronic medical records. Is that no longer the case? Can they now opt out if they don't want their records collected digitally? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, individuals who access the healthcare system cannot opt out of utilizing the record systems that we have in place. Our priority, and following up on the recommendations of the Information and Privacy Commissioner about concerns raised by others including individuals of this House, is the ability for a resident to block the ability of their information to be shared with others. We didn't think we initially could do that, but we believe now that we can, so we're working on finding a mechanism whereby a resident, should they choose to, could require us to block their ability for their information to be shared with others; but no, residents won't necessarily be able to say, "No, I don't want any records. I don't want any electronic health records." Our system is going to be an electronic records system. We are moving forward. It will improve quality of care for residents, and there won't be a paper option once we are fully rolled out, but we are looking to find a way to block. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I understand that one of the remedies to offer people who don't want to be part of the electronic medical records is, in fact, to offer them masking where information is concealed. I'm not exactly sure what the right word is, but it's protected, I guess, from certain users in the system; and that the current system is called a legacy system, so it is not that easy to find this fix of masking information on it. Can the Minister elaborate on that point, please?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am pretty sure we are talking about the same thing, using a different word. We are talking about the resident being able to block their record from being seen by certain individuals within this healthcare system, including certain specific information.
The initial system, as designed, didn't really have that available, but we have been working with the developers to see how we can incorporate that in, and we believe there is a mechanism. We are not 100 per cent sure. I may come back and say I was wrong, but at this point we believe that it is something we can do. If we find otherwise, I will certainly let committee know, and we will be looking for alternative solutions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister give us an idea of when this potential fix is going to be piloted, and when we might hear a resolution to this issue? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the timing is interesting. We haven't completed a work plan on this yet, but I am scheduled to have a briefing in the next couple of weeks once we have a bit better idea of the magnitude. I will certainly keep Members informed as we move forward as appropriate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just finally on this point: could the Minister commit to proactively informing the committee once he has had the briefing about the status of this issue so that we are also in the loop?
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am pretty sure that is what I just said. I am going to keep committee in the loop. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Any further questions from committee? Seeing none, we will call this summary on page 171, Health and Social Services, administrative and support services, operations expenditure summary, $87,835,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Agreed. We shall move on to Health and Social Services, ambulatory care services, operations expenditure, on pages 174 to 177. Committee wants to refer to the page they are directed to. Any questions on this activity? Ms. Green, go ahead, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I see the payment to out-of-territories hospitals has increased by $9,000,000, or will increase by $9,000,000 in the next fiscal year. Can the Minister confirm that this is a proactive step on the part of the department to line up actual spending with the budget? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Abernethy.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. Ms. Green.
Nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Any further questions? Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Chair, I guess the first question is: is this where the chemo section is we should be talking about? We should be talking about the chemo. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, this isn't the correct area. The correct area, I think it falls kind of in two different areas, and that's community health and nursing services, I think is the appropriate title. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. Is this the area for mental health where we are talking about those new positions, because on page 177, it talks about -- oh, never mind. It answers my question. I have no questions in this area, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Page 177 is the next activity. Nothing further? Anything further from committee? I see nothing from committee. I will call ambulatory care services, operations expenditure summary, $75,161,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Moving on, community health programs, on pages 177 through to page 181. Comments or questions? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, during the business plan review, we talked quite a bit about the need to have an adult day program in Yellowknife, and I see that there is now a request for proposals out. Can the Minister please tell us what kind of a day program he is asking potential bidders to bid on? That is to say, does it include people with both cognitive disabilities as well as frailty? How many people will be served? How long a contract is this, and so on? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the RFP is just recently out; I shared it with the Member. We're trying to provide a day program for those, basically, in most need in the Yellowknife area. It's certainly not a broad-ranging program or a program for all residents of the Yellowknife area. It will be for certain individuals and, honestly, I can't remember what we put out as a term on that. So I will have to get back with that information. I'm blanking completely. So I apologize.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I recognize that the Minister said that they were going to provide for those with the greatest needs. Could he tell us what that means? How are they defining the greatest needs? Thank you.
