Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in follow-up to my Member's statement, I have a few questions for the Minister of Health.
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, my constituents are demanding better quality healthcare, and I would like to ask the Minister: will the quality of healthcare improve once the new Stanton Hospital is completed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are lots of things that are happening in the Health and Social Services system with a focus on improving the delivery to all residents. Moving a single authority has given us many opportunities, and the construction of the new Stanton building will certainly help us provide efficient services in that building.
More importantly, for residents outside of Yellowknife, residents of the Member's riding, I think that one of the most important things that we are doing right now is the Cultural Safety Action Plan, which is going to help ensure that our frontline people are trained and understand the environments in which they work.
With that Cultural Safety Action Plan is also primary healthcare reform, and honestly, in my opinion, the primary healthcare reform is really the step that is going to help us improve delivery at the front line for all residents of the Northwest Territories, including residents of his riding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
When will my constituents be provided the best quality of healthcare and receive thorough examinations when needed?
That is a very broad question. We know that in the Northwest Territories we do have some pretty great staff out there providing services, and many of our residents are getting timely and good care, but there are certainly residents who are raising issues. It is important for us to learn from those issues.
I would strongly encourage that the Member, and all Members, in fact, if they have a resident who has an issue with the care that they have received, please bring it forward to our quality assurance professionals so that they can review those situations and make recommendations to help us ensure that some of those unfortunate situations are not occurring on a regular basis.
We want to have a system that is constantly evolving, improving, and growing to meet our clients' needs, but we need our residents to be part of that process as well.
My constituents do bring up these issues, but this is an ongoing issue. Many times constituents go for checkups when they have an illness that needs attention, but they are basically given Tylenol and being sent home, and that needs to stop, Mr. Speaker.
Is our quality of healthcare being limited to save money on medical travel, as most high-quality examinations, like MRIs and CT scans, are done in Edmonton? Is that being limited to save on medical costs?
Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can residents also travel to Vancouver for medical travel, or does everyone have to go to Edmonton when travelling outside of the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Under medical travel, you are referred to the location within our system that has the services available closest. For some individuals, they would come into Inuvik. For some individuals, they might come into Hay River. For some individuals, they would come into Yellowknife.
For things like MRIs and many of our specialist appointments or surgeries, our relationship is with Alberta, so our referral pattern is into Alberta. We are working with a couple of our communities in the Deh Cho to create a relationship with northern BC, but for the most part, all of our referrals are to our partners in Alberta. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
