Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the past few sittings, I have had the opportunity to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services a number of questions about having the residents of Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte access to medical services via medical travel to Fort Nelson, BC. Can the Minister advise this House if the department has been able to make some movement on this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Absolutely. Staff from the Department of Health and Social Services did visit the community of Fort Liard, as well as Fort Nelson, to meet with residents of Fort Liard, but also staff of the health system in Fort Nelson, to discuss, first off, what services are actually provided in Nelson.
I think there has been some confusion over the years about what capacity Nelson has. They certainly aren't providing all of the services that are offered here in the Northwest Territories, the services that are required by residents of the Northwest Territories, but they certainly offer more than is being provided in Fort Liard. We did reach out to them. We had some discussions about some things that we might be able to do for our residents in Fort Liard, things like mammograms and other diagnostic tests that Fort Nelson may be able to provide for us.
We did meet with the MLA. Myself and staff from the department met with the MLA in September. We agreed to go to Fort Liard and Nahanni Butte to talk to the residents about what we have learned to help us formulate our next steps. We are hoping that we can put in some Memorandums of Agreement on some of those diagnostic tests, but also figure out how we might be able to provide some additional services or, rather, have our residents receive services from Fort Nelson in a way that still fits within the NWT Health and Social Services system.
We have made progress. We are not all the way there, but we are on the right path. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister has kind of answered a lot of my questions that I had here today, but that is great to hear. I am very happy to see that. That is a positive step, and I have to applaud the department and his staff for reaching out to Fort Nelson. We look forward to it.
The Minister talked about a couple of those -- mammograms and, I forget the other one, lab work, but also, with pregnancy, can the Minister explain or provide information if this opportunity is available as well?
There are services that aren't provided in Fort Nelson right now. I am actually not 100 percent sure about pregnancy, but my suggestion would be that having individuals come to the boarding home here in Yellowknife or to services here in Yellowknife or Hay River might be more appropriate. If there were any complications, we can deal with them within this existing system.
If somebody is receiving services in Nelson and there is a complication, they could end up going into the BC system where we wouldn't necessarily have access to health records or history of the individual, which could provide some additional complications. Given that we do bring people in quite a bit early, I am sure we can find ways to support those residents to come to northern locations where appropriate.
I thank the Minister for explaining and clarifying that because it is very important for residents to understand that not all services are going to be available, but some are, like he said, mammograms and lab services.
Can the Minister advise us when they could see potential opportunities for this service to be implemented, going to Fort Nelson?
Right now, residents from Liard and Nahanni can go to Fort Nelson, if that is where they choose to receive services. We do have reciprocal billing agreements with all provinces and territories in this country.
Our challenge, and I think the Member understands this, is that, when somebody uses their facilities without a referral in, they aren't necessarily covered for things like medical travel. There is also no ability to seamlessly share information where appropriate. What we are looking to do is actually fix that problem and find a way to refer people into Nelson so that they can take advantage of things like medical travel and so that our doctors in the North can work seamlessly with those doctors in Fort Nelson to make sure that our residents receive seamless care.
That work is underway right now. We are going to Liard and Nahanni in November. From there, we will figure out what our next steps are after we talk to the community about where we are and what we've learned, and then we will be engaging with Fort Nelson again.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister making the commitment to come in, in November, and he's worked with his staff. Can the Minister please advise this House, when he goes into the community, what's going to happen? What is the department going to present, and who is going to be coming in with him?
It is the Member's meeting. I am going with the Member. I anticipate he will be helping set up those meetings. We are bringing the staff who have been working and negotiating with Nelson so that they can explain our findings, help the communities, both of them, understand what services Nelson provides and what services Nelson does not provide. Once again, I think there is some belief that Nelson can do everything, and they are limited. There are certainly services they don't provide there. Then, talk about next steps, how we can work together with the community to make sure that those services that can be provided in Nelson are properly set up so that our residents can have more timely access to services.
By way of example, we know that they are providing mammogram services in the community. It's a much shorter drive for residents to drive there, to Nelson, for services as opposed to getting on a plane, flying to Simpson, getting on another plane, flying to Yellowknife, spending a couple of days in Yellowknife, and then flying back. These individuals can get down there and back same day, if not, one night, as opposed to many. There's lots of opportunity here, and this is a good-news story. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
