Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was very pleased to have the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Hon. Sandy Lee, accompany me on a tour of my constituency May 4 to May 7. I appreciate her going with me to hear first-hand the concerns the residents of Nahendeh have with the NWT Health and Social Services system.
One of the concerns that was brought up several times in our travels, Mr. Speaker, was the lack of emergency dental care in that community. When the residents I represent get a toothache they are expected to wait for the next time the dentist comes to town. The current guidelines state that persons can travel to other communities for dental care only in emergencies. I’m not sure how emergency is defined. Does the tooth have to be broken, or does there have to be an obvious abscess? If I had a bad toothache and the nurse was only giving me Tylenol 3 and I was expected to wait a couple of weeks for a dentist to come, I would certainly classify that as an emergency.
In Yellowknife and a couple of the other larger centres if you have a toothache you can get to see a dentist the same day. Some of the dental clinics even have after-hours and on-call dentists you can call in an emergency.
Mr. Speaker, people are suffering needlessly. It’s a pretty simple solution to allow people with dental emergencies in Nahendeh to travel to Hay River or to Yellowknife. The nurses or CHRs in the community can make a determination of how much pain a person is in and balance that need against how long they will have to wait for a dentist to come to the community. To allow people to suffer needlessly because they live in smaller communities is not right. The department needs to develop or improve the policies that address this issue. Mahsi cho.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
