Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Department of Health staff for taking steps to address an issue that I brought up in the last sitting. Even though dialysis treatment is offered in Hay River, it is always fully subscribed, and as a result, there were a number of residents who were living at Vital Abel House in Yellowknife so that they could access dialysis treatment.
What the department did was give these residents an option to fly to and from Yellowknife from Hay River three times a week so that they could receive treatment, and by all accounts, this has worked out very well. My constituents are very happy with this option. There have been no hiccups with transportation.
My first question is: when I see my constituents on the flight home later today, can I assure them that this pilot will continue and that they can go home to their bed every night? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The short answer is yes, but there are always conditions. We want to keep working with our residents to make sure that they are getting the support that they need. We also acknowledge that it has been good so far, but we have also had pretty decent weather, and the flights have all been on time.
If it looks like we might be having some complications, we need to be flexible. We may have to bring them in for a week or two from time to time depending on those things, but our intention now is to continue to work with our residents across the Northwest Territories, not just those in Hay River, while we do our review of dialysis services in the Northwest Territories and come forward with larger solutions and larger options. In the interim, we will work with our residents one on one. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I understand that everywhere else has it worse, really, than Yellowknife and Hay River when it comes to dialysis, because those are the only two places to receive treatment. I appreciate that. I believe there is someone from Fort Providence and Fort Resolution who drives in three times a week to Hay River for treatment.
The last time that I spoke about this, the Minister stated that he heard loud and clear that we need to do more to provide dialysis services closer to home, and he would prefer not to have people going from Hay River to Yellowknife to receive that service. He stated there is a lot of work to be done, and "we are prepared to start that work." Can the Minister please detail the work done to date?
This is a territorial problem. We have residents across the Northwest Territories on dialysis. We are looking at it from a territorial lens, recognizing, of course, that both Hay River and Yellowknife are the only places that dialysis is currently located.
The authority and the department have already begun their analysis. They are looking at other options like homebased dialysis. I think one Member did mention a travelling dialysis. There are some concerns about that, especially the models that exist in the South, but we have started to explore those options.
Also, recognizing that we need a big solution, a big comprehensive solution for the whole territory, we are also trying to find some shortterm wins, and we have been exploring the opportunity of sharing some resources between Stanton and Hay River to balance out where the resources need to be, where the existing machinery exists today. We are working on some of the details.
We are open to having some shortterm solutions as we continue to move on finding some larger, more appropriate territorial solutions.
I appreciate that. It sounds like a lot of work has been done so far.
The Minister mentioned sharing resources between Stanton and Hay River. Could the Minister please elaborate on that, and would that entail, perhaps, bringing resources to Hay River physically so that these residents wouldn't have to fly back and forth?
We are not intending to move equipment back and forth, obviously, but we have trained professionals here in Yellowknife, and some really great trained professionals in Hay River. The question is whether or not we can actually have some of our staff go back and forth, rather than some of the patients.
There are some complications there. We are trying to figure out whether that's even a possibility, but right now, we are exploring all options. Like I said, we are trying to find some shortterm solutions, some shortterm wins, to support our residents, but also, this has to be done in view of territorial solutions as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister please provide us with some timelines on these possible shortterm solutions and on the longerterm territorywide solution to this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We have certain processes within the Government of the Northwest Territories' budget planning and whatnot. I imagine largerterm solutions will have to follow that cycle, but we are trying to find some shortterm interim solutions with existing resources that we can actually implement during the 20182019 fiscal year. We are hoping that we will be able to finish that work, recognizing that that is part of the solution, and it will not be the comprehensive solution that will follow our normal processes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
