Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I spoke about the pilot project in the Beaufort-Delta where they were going to be mailing out the FIT kits. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services advise me or this House if the pandemic delayed this pilot project rollout as planned? If not, have the rates increased in screening in our region? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to start for thanking the Member for drawing attention to this Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. It's a very significant problem all around, but especially in the Beaufort-Delta. She will be pleased to know that the program rolled out as planned in January of 2020. The response rate was low in Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok, so the kits were sent again in November of 2020 to those communities. In total, there were 1,157 FIT kits distributed, and the screening rates in the smaller Beaufort-Delta communities, that is, excluding Inuvik, doubled from 7.9 percent to 15.64 percent, and screening participation rates for the whole Beaufort-Delta region, which, of course, includes Inuvik, rose from 6.7 percent to 11.8 percent overall. Thank you.
Thank you to the Minister for that, and I'm glad to hear that that rolled out as planned. Those who are at risk require a colonoscopy. Can the Minister provide what the wait lists were before the pandemic hit for colonoscopies in Inuvik and Yellowknife?
I don't have information about what it was, but I do have information about what it is. Right now, the wait time from a positive FIT test to colonoscopy through the Territorial Colorectal Cancer Screening program in the Beaufort-Delta is approximately 88 days, so let's say three months. Our target for improvement is to ensure that patients are seen more quickly than that, and we are now working on a pilot project that will help us to identify where we can make improvements to reduce the amount of time that it takes to go from a positive test to a colonoscopy.
One of the issues that I know sometimes happens in the Northwest Territories is that, if you can't get in in Inuvik, because we do have an endoscopy room, you get bumped to Yellowknife, or vice versa. I'm just wondering, with the sterilization issues that happened at Stanton, did this impact any of the wait times for people accessing colonoscopies in our endoscopy rooms?
No, that's not a factor. The reprocessing of endoscopy instruments is in a different machine than that which was giving us trouble through the fall.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for that. That's good to hear. I am very concerned about the pandemic's impact on cancer diagnosis and treatment, due to travel restrictions, appointment availability, and fear of travelling out of the NWT to the Alberta Cross Cancer Institute. Can the Minister tell us if the department has had these issues, and how are they handled? Because I would really hate for residents to be delayed for diagnosis and treatment, which could decrease the risks for survival. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
All services remain available now, as they were before the pandemic started. The travel restrictions have not impacted residents' ability to travel to Alberta, to the Cross Cancer Institute for Cancer Treatment, although people may have decided not to go because they were concerned about the number of infectious cases in Edmonton. There is regular communication between the Alberta Cross Cancer Institute and NWT residents, and that is facilitated by medical oncology and haematology oncology. These are two cancer speciality clinics that continue to be offered virtually at Stanton Territorial Hospital, and this is done in coordination with the cancer nurse navigators and oncologists. These clinics are managed virtually, unless the oncologist decides that the person has to be seen in person. Required diagnostics and virtual appointments are made in the NWT as often as possible because we are aware that some people are leery about travelling into regions with increased COVID infection rates, but all of these services are available to residents of the NWT, just as they were before the pandemic. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
