Merci, Madame la Presidente. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. First off, is the Minister aware of the release of the new federal longterm care standards, and are these under review in light of our 2015 continuing care standards? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I have all kind of good news for the Member from Frame Lake.
The standards for longterm care were released on January 31st by the health standards organization. And what's very important to know about these standards is, not only there are lots of them, but they really are aimed at ensuring the comfort, safety, and dignity of seniors who are in longterm care.
I'd like to say that developing the standards was a collaborative process. It involved the Department of Health and Social Services from the GNWT at a government advisory table. There were several forums, and the department had an opportunity to review the standards and provide input into them. We are using them to develop our own longterm care standards which will be complete by the end of March and go into effect immediately after.
The other thing I want to say about the standards is that they are about more than just the response to COVID. They were in development prior to COVID and so they look at a whole range of issues, not only things like infection control and prevention. Thank you.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I think that was a yes; that was great. I'll keep it rolling. Our continuing care standards have been in place since 2015 and reviewing that document, I did not see any discussion of the special precautions and practices necessary during a pandemic or a public health emergency.
So can the Minister tell us whether these revised standards that she mentioned, or the review of our 2015 standard, whether there's going to be anything in there in light of any lessons learned from the COVID pandemic? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Yes, thank you. Given the disastrous start to COVID and the large loss of life, up to as many as 18,000 seniors who died in the early days of COVID, the health and social services authorities developed a management policy for longterm care facilities in the NWT. And this was aimed at managing the outbreak that was happening all across the world at that point, and also with the support of the chief public health officer who provided her input as well. So the document was a living document. Each wave of COVID was different and so the policy was updated each time we confronted a new situation, a situation where it was more contagious or a situation where it was more lethal, and the results of that have been incorporated into the standards I mentioned earlier. Thank you.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that. So I had a chance to look at the discussion paper that was released around learning from the response to COVID, and there didn't seem to be anything in there about continuing care or longterm care standards or how the pandemic response relates to seniors in particular in longterm care.
So can the Minister tell us whether there was any public engagement as part of that review of our COVID response that dealt with longterm care standards and whether any public concerns were raised as part of that review? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, this work is not being led by the Department of Health and Social Services but what I understand is that there was, as the Member said, a discussion paper and a period of time for people to discuss the things that they wanted to be recorded as lessons learned from COVID. So my hope is that when I see this report, there will be the reflections in there of the kind of questions I got during COVID, which actually had less to do with the health side of COVID and more to do with the social side about isolation, visitor policies, and so on. So I'm looking forward to seeing that report and seeing how we could incorporate the information into the standards or into new policies that deal with pandemics. Thank you.
Thank you. Final supplementary, Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madame la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister again for that. This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I gave the Minister's a headsup, so.
Can the Minister tell us when the results of the learning from the response to COVID19 public engagement and the actual report will be released, and whether standing committee will be given an opportunity to review and comment on them first? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, it's my understanding that the report is not yet complete but that the production of the report will follow the normal practice of providing it to Regular Members for comment. Thank you.
Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
