Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I appreciate her informing this House previously that we have a 26.3 percent vacancy rate in nursing positions and this is a 10 percent increase since 2020. However I was hoping the Minister could help me quantify what that means at Stanton specifically where the OBS unit has closed. Can the Minister tell us currently how many positions are funded at Stanton Territorial Hospital, and how many of them are not actually filled. Thank you. Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the question. The staff component at Stanton Territorial Hospital is 466 and the vacancy rate was 13.1 percent as of June 30th. And there are 61 positions that were actively being recruited for as of June 30th. Those are the most recent statistics I have. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there is a lot of efforts being done to make sure we fill those 61 positions, and I know that it's costly not to fill them. And I was hoping the Minister could inform us with this latest closure of obstetrics, what is the estimated cost of sending all those patients to Edmonton to give birth as opposed to, if they were able to, here in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have an answer for the Member, but I want to say at the beginning that any recruiting efforts we are successful with right now will likely take a few weeks to implement, especially if the person needs to relocate to Yellowknife from another place.
To the costs of sending the patients to Edmonton, it's our estimate that it will be approximately $12,500 for the patient and her escort to go to Edmonton and stay there for 28 days, or four weeks. This cost includes flights, accommodation, transportation, and meals for the traveler and her escort. And those services may be augmented by the pregnant person's own employee benefit plans if the person has those available to them by the NIHB or by other employer benefits, depending on who they work for. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just doing some onthefly math, I believe there was 90 Yellowknife residents. I know there was some Nunavut residents who were also affected. But 90 times $12,500 is $1,125,000. Can I just get a clarification on that $12,500 statistic? Is that the cost of all the medical travel and the accommodations, and does it include I believe if we send someone to birth in Edmonton, Alberta Health Services is going to bill us back for those services. Does it include that number and if not, what would that be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that this number includes the cost of service from Alberta Health Services. This is the medical travel cost. But I can find out what the billing would be, or at least a range. You know, some deliveries are very straightforward and others aren't, as we all know, and so that may also impact the amount of money that is spent with Alberta Health Services for their support. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would appreciate the Minister following up with what we expect Alberta to bill us back. I know that they bill us back millions of dollars a year, and I expect that births, even one complicated birth, can get very expensive really quickly. And I guess my point here is that this closure is becoming a million dollar cost to us. I think that's quite clear. We're in that range. And I know it's been reported that the OBS nurses for years have been asking for an additional staff person and there's some debate about, you know, about whether that is needed. But I think this is proven that, you know, one closure is easily more than the cost of funding that staff position. So my question for the Minister is there is a political win here where we can fund an additional OBS nurse and hope that this closure never happens again? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say I hope this is a oneoff that I never have to stand here and talk about the obstetrics unit being closed again.
In terms of adding an additional staff, I don't know where those discussions are at within the hospital. I do know that the number of births that Stanton has been declining over the last three or four years. I also know that they have a large number of vacancies at this point so I'm not sure that adding another position is actually going to bring them another body, because we are, you know, in the midst of recruiting for those vacancies. So I think that this is a conversation that we need to have. Maybe the value of the fourth position over the long term is that people are more able to take their time off. So it's certainly something I'm interested in. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions, Member for Kam Lake.
