Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that specific detail I don't have here, but I'm willing to work with the Member and all Members in that hence to get that information and provide it back to the Member on the permanent how many permanent health care nurses that we do have. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I can't understate the challenge that we face in the Northwest Territories. You know, I assure this House that we are actively working to improve health care. I've had many discussions with my staff. I've had discussions, you know, from what I've heard from other Members. And one of the discussions that I have been having is, you know, ensuring that we're looking at the communities and the model that we're providing in the communities, and that is something that I will be focusing on during my time as the Minister of health, is how, you know, the how...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize Shirley Elias. She's a constituent of mine. She's also one of our interpreters. And I'd also like to thank all the interpreters for this first sitting of the 20th Assembly, and I'm sorry if I spoke too fast, and I'll try to remember to slow down. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yes and I'm glad that the Member you know, we work closely with Alberta Health Services' dialysis service to provide this service using their policies and stuff, and they do take training to be dialysis nurses. So it's the same as we have an endoscopy unit, we have to have trained staff to run that endoscopy unit. Like, those it's more than just hiring a nurse. And I've said it, and I'll say it again, a nurse is not a nurse is not a nurse. Everybody has a specialty, and that's why we struggle in our health care providing the right service for the right people...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, having the dialysis equipment in Inuvik, you know, we have a lot of people that might need that have kidney disease but not all of them, and then I think in the territories we have 568 residents living with some degree of kidney disease, and then 87 clients with stage 4/5 renal disease, and those are the people that are potentially, if not already, on dialysis. Yellowknife has the capacity for a certain amount. Hay River, I think, is they are at capacity now. And, you know, what I'm willing to do for the Member is to review how many clients, you know, in...

Yes. Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not sure I understand if the question is the direction from the headquarters or because in all of the regions, we have regional diabetes educators. We have community health representative workers that work with you know, with health promotion and health in that area so if the you know, if there's a specific question, I would try to get the answer for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yes, I will commit to doing that and making sure that there is some kind of information that can go out to Members and to  a communique on how this list is monitored. Thank you.

Thank you, Member, for the question. And after our back and forth on this question the last time, I did try to get more and more of the information that I would be able to provide to the Member. And so the list  this list has been in place  it sits within the like, the  it's an electronic list. So people  and it's monitored regularly. And the information that I can provide is that there  if there's a need for a patient that, you know, has chronic illness and things like that, then they, you know, they may, you know, be able to be assigned a doctor sooner. As for how long people have been on...

Sorry, Mr. Speaker. We are continuing to work with Alberta in  there's  nothing has changed, and I want  I think that's the thing is right now, within our health care system our referral process is to Alberta. There is no change in that referral service. The  they are still  they are still providing the service in Alberta. If  and I think  so people are aware, we will continue  like our department is continuing to work with the Government of Alberta to clarify Alberta's proposed policy and how they may impact residents of the Northwest Territories receiving outofterritorial referrals. And for ...