Mr. Speaker, when paramedics are on the job, every second counts because in emergency situations their work can be the deciding factor between a patient's life or death. They stand vigilantly on call to provide vital care and immediate transportation to medical facilities when the need arises, often in complex and traumatic circumstances both in the heart of our communities or on far away remote highways.
Unfortunately, here in the North their job is only made more difficult due to the vast geography of our territory and the limited resources available in the small communities that are spread out across it. Yet regardless of these factors, all Northerners deserve access to these vital emergency services that they need when they need them. Likewise, our indispensable paramedics are always eager to offer their best efforts to support Northerners because they are passionate about keeping our communities healthy and safe. That is why we need to listen to paramedics when they call on us to create more efficient, dedicated, advanced care paramedic services for highways separate from community care paramedic services. A paramedic working on our highways needs more advanced skills and resources than community paramedics because responding to emergency calls in remote regions means a patient could be hours away from medical care or from hospital staff. When highways taken care of by advanced care paramedics, communities with highways taken care of by advanced care paramedics, community care paramedics could focus only specializing on lower acuity illnesses and injuries and working closer with continuing care staff and physicians to provide additional support for patients in their homes. The benefits of more available specialized care from community care paramedics would result in less pressure on 9-1-1 and emergency room services because illnesses or injuries would be cared for appropriately before they increase in severity and become emergencies.
Northerners know establishing dedicated paramedic services in communities and on our highways should be a priority for this government. It would greatly increase public safety in our remote regions and support health care in all of our communities. It's up to us to make the NWT a safer place no matter where our constituents happen to live, work, or travel. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from Great Slave.
