Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The questions are for the Minister of Health. The Minister confirmed that new bed projections were based on 10 years of statistical information versus the five that went into the 2015 report. Can the Minister confirm what statistical evidence was considered in developing the NWT's long-term bed requirements? I have a difficult time believing that so much has changed in five years when our population has a minimal change overall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Member for Hay River South for that question. What has changed is a greater amount of data about actual use has allowed us to quantify the age and stage of the people who are entering long-term care facilities. We have actual information to rely on. In 2015, those were truly projections based on bed ratios for age. What we have now is actual versus projected. That is why those two numbers are different, what was required in 2015 and what was required in 2020. Thank you.
The NWT has issues such as lack of housing, addictions, effects of residential schools, and others. Compared to the rest of Canada, these issues negatively impact delivery of extended care and homecare support due to our relatively small population. I would ask the Minister: what, if any, consideration was given to the uniqueness of northern health issues during the recent review process for determining long-term bed requirements for Hay River?
It is my understanding that, in doing that report, the Bureau of Statistics looked at issues such as the age of people going into long-term care; what their health status was going into long-term care; how much time they spent in long-term care; which community they were from and which community they want into long-term care in, which are sometimes different. They looked, certainly, at the comorbidities, as we say, more than one chronic disease, that drive people into the requirement for higher-level nursing care and thus into long-term care. I feel confident that the health of the population was a primary consideration in looking at the bed needs going forward.
The reality is that many of our NGOs, families, and support networks are taxed to the breaking point, yet this government wants to try and squeeze a little more out of them. Can the Minister confirm if the department, during its reassessment of long-term bed requirements, talked to those community organizations currently supporting long-term and homecare clients, and to what extent was that conversation?
It is my understanding that the consultation on the new bed projections is about to begin next month with, in fact, a trip to Hay River to talk to people there about the findings and to verify those numbers on the ground. We have not done that in advance. The study that was done was done by the Bureau of Statistics. They are not using qualitative information; they are using quantitative information about the size of the population, the health of the population, where they live, and so on and so forth. That is not the kind of document that we would normally expect them to consult on. We just asked them to produce the numbers, and that is what they did.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't really like to say it, but it appears that the process and conclusions were conceived in Yellowknife by bureaucrats with no or limited input from stakeholders, which it sounds like happened. I am glad to hear, though, that the department will be going out.
I would ask the Minister: once the consultation takes place, we may see a change. We may see that maybe Hay River only needs 24 beds. We may see that Fort Smith only needs 12 beds. We may see that we need 36, 64, I don't know, versus the 48 initially proposed, but whatever the answer, the analysis has to be done right. It has to take into consideration what the community needs, and for Hay River, it would be surrounding communities, of which there are five of them. I would ask the Minister if she would at least commit her department to during the reassessment to really consider Hay River and the area that we do serve and the needs of the people. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to just say a word about the catchment area for Hay River. Kakisa and Fort Providence are within the Deh Cho Health and Social Services Authority area, and so generally speaking, they are served out of Fort Simpson, which is the headquarters for that authority; Fort Resolution is within the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority, so they are served from Yellowknife. The Hay River long-term-care bed projections are based on the Town of Hay River, K'atlodeeche First Nation, and Enterprise.
What we know about the occupation of the beds right now is that, at the extended care facility in Hay River, there are 23 people in there; 17 of them are over 70; there are two who are under 60; there are a number who have a diagnosis of dementia; we have got a number of people on the waiting list; there is a respite bed available, and that the work provided at Woodland Manor is equivalent to 35 full-time positions. We have a lot of information about what is going on now, and we have a rationale for what we are projecting to happen in the future. The task the department has and I have as the Minister is to verify these numbers and persuade the Member and residents of his community that these numbers are factual and verifiable and reliable and that these are the numbers we are going to go forward with. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.
