Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Throughout my term as a Nahendeh MLA, I have had the opportunity to hear stories, positive and negative in nature, about the service in the health system. Today in my Member's statement I talked about the great service that some of our residents have received at the hospitals here, so today I would like to ask some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services about staff that go above and beyond. This type of service has been credited to people having a faster recovery time and living through difficult situations. I have had, actually, constituents say thank you, that, because of that service, they are alive today. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain what he and/or the department does when they receive positive feedback for the work that staff do? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Member for his Member's statement earlier today. I think that it is important that we do recognize the incredible work that many of our amazing professionals provide throughout the healthcare system here in the Northwest Territories. These individuals are dedicated. They are committed to doing the best that they can for residents of the Northwest Territories in trying and challenging environments.
The authority does take significant effort to ensure that they are sharing these positive stories with their staff, and there are many different ways that this information comes in. Sometimes the individuals share their positive results or positive experience directly with the practitioners, which is fantastic. Other times, we know that managers or directors get information, and the managers and directors do their best to share that information with the individuals who actually were the ones being highlighted or applauded for the work that they did.
Also, Mr. Speaker, in the authority, when positive stories are brought forth, that can be shared, and I will touch on that in a second. We do try to get that out throughout the entire authority using different communications processes, such as weekly updates, our website, and our blogs. This information is how we get some of these positive stories out there.
I will note, Mr. Speaker, that, in all things that we do in Health and Social Services, we are bound by the Health Information Act, and there have been situations where individuals are really positive about their experiences, so much so that they share more information than we can, in turn, share. Sometimes we have to take out some of the specific individual context, but we do still try to share the overall feeling and intent of those messages with staff. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The Minister gave a very long answer, and it actually took some of my questions on the way. I know that I can't ask any more, but I will anyway. With this feedback that they have received, does the department develop it to help promote best practices to help train other staff or even new staff coming in?
We are trying to evolve and continually be an organization focused on quality improvements. When we do get these positive stories, if there are recommendations in those letters or those e-mails or wherever the individual is sharing their information from, we try to use that data to help address quality improvement issues -- "this works"; "this doesn't work"; "we have got positive feedback on this type of subject" -- so that we could share those information so that could be part of a whole learning experience.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, we do try to learn from them. We do try to get them through our mechanisms, through our tools and our resources, to make sure that those experiences are shared and highlighted for developmental purposes as well.
That is great to hear, because all we hear sometimes in this House is about the negative stuff. Even when we have concerns, it seems that we bring to the Minister or the department our concerns. Sometimes, when they are doing some great stuff, that, to me, is just as great a learning opportunity. I am glad that the department uses that as a way to help the staff. Does the department have an in-house newsletter that focuses on new changes and compliments and recommendations moving forward?
I am not going to talk about what the department is doing. I think that the Member is more referring, I believe, to the what the authority itself is doing. The NWT Health and Social Services Authority has launched an internal website that is available to all staff within the authority. The website itself focuses on many areas, including highlighting our own employees and the incredible work that some of our employees do, communicating change, promoting awareness of different programs and services, and when appropriate, highlighting some of the positive feedback that we are receiving, as long as it doesn't breach any health information legislation.
Content from the Stanton Territorial Hospital is included in communication through the territorial authority on their website, which, in a sense, Mr. Speaker, actually acts as a digital newsletter. In short, yes, it is there.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I greatly appreciate the Minister for all of his answers to this point. I just have to share one compliment that I just received yesterday from a constituent who said, "We have got to be thankful that we have these world-class services available to us." Again, to the staff out there, thank you very much for the work that you are doing. With this website and that, is it available for the public, or is it just internally? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I will make sure that I ask the department to take this section of the Hansard and share it with the staff in the territorial authority so that they understand and can hear the message from the MLA from his riding. The website is actually an internal website for staff only. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
