Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister of Health today. I’ll be following up on both my Member’s statement and my questions from yesterday, which addressed my concern about this young mother, two in tow, a three month old nursing baby with her, who had trouble getting a hospital room and waited 34 hours.
I was reading Hansard questions yesterday. To understand some of the complexity, the frustration I’m feeling on this side of the House…. The Minister said we send people….that we use Capital Health services, because services like urology…. Well, Mr. Speaker, I was talking about neurology. That’s the frustration I’m having over here, trying to communicate this problem. I mean, it’s the study of urine and I’m talking about a stroke.
Mr. Speaker, the question to the Minister at this time is: there must be some type of contract we have with Capital Health, and there must be a proviso within that contract that says we communicate with the Northwest Territories government, and within that contract there must be something that stipulates accessibility for northern patients going south. Is there such a clause, and would the Minister be willing to make that known to myself as the Member, the family, as well as the rest of the House?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to just ask that the Hansard be corrected to read “neurology.” That is what I said.
Mr. Speaker, we do have a contract with Capital Health so they can provide services that we cannot in the North. We don’t have special status with Alberta, but we do have access to service that Alberta and Capital Health gives to its own residents. My understanding is and we are aware that there is a shortage of beds and facilities all over the country, and sometimes we experience some difficulties. I would be happy to provide the Member with any details of the agreements he would like to know and that I could get hold of.
Well, if I try really hard and understand that answer, what I’ll do is I’ll assume that there must be some proviso and detail that talks about potential status if the hospital is full.
Mr. Speaker, when I raised the issue about notice or communications to the Minister’s office vis-à-vis through Stanton or whatever from Capital Health and it talked about beds being full, the Minister said there was nothing, but I am getting indications that there was information passed to this government through Capital Health. I would like to be clear: does Capital Health inform this government in any way if no hospital beds are available? How do they do so, and when was the last correspondence on that matter?
Mr. Speaker, as I stated yesterday, this is a medical decision. A medical doctor at Stanton decides that somebody needs to go elsewhere to receive medical care that we cannot provide here. The medical doctor would be in touch with somebody in Capital Health to receive our patients. So it’s a medical decision; it’s a medical practice decision, and I believe in this case that decision was made by the medical practitioners.
Mr. Speaker, I certainly wish we were in a court of law so we could treat the Minister like a hostile witness to get her to answer the question. The answer wasn’t in there anywhere. My question was about the detail of communication.
All indications are that there is information that flows from Capital Health to the Northwest Territories through Capital Health, maybe through to Stanton, then it gets to the Minister’s office. So, Mr. Speaker, I will have to find another way to say the same question: is there any type of communication that gives the detail that beds are full or not?
Mr. Speaker, I don’t know what the Member means by “all indications.” I did get a call from the media telling me that the Member is suggesting I got an e-mail two weeks ago. I don’t have any such information, and I will make it clear: we do not have any information that says anything like the Member is suggesting. I don’t know what the Member is saying with “all indications.”
Once again, this is a medical decision made by the medical practitioner at Stanton, who felt that this patient needed to go to Royal Alexandra Hospital. That’s the decision that was made.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Mr. Speaker, I am glad the Minister drew in Royal Alex, because she is very adamant that this patient went to the Royal Alex. But I actually contacted the hospital; I contacted Capital Health, and she is not at Royal Alex. As a matter of fact, she’s at the U of A. So I seem to be a little…. And there’s no problem with the Royal Alex, but obviously the detail isn’t there.
The Minister said in her remarks yesterday that she spent all day trying to do her best to get this patient into a room. There is a reference to contacting or finding information about Calgary and Grande Prairie. Well, Mr. Speaker, I called these agencies. I called the Queen Elizabeth, too, in Grande Prairie, and they said clearly that there is no way they could see 34 hours as a reasonable amount of time.
I would like the Minister to show me what correspondence and efforts were made to reasonably demonstrate that there was a push from our government to make sure someone did not have to wait in the emergency room 19 hours for an enclosure and 15 more hours for a bed.
Mr. Speaker, I will be happy to provide the information as to the work the staff did, the calls the nurses made to talk to the patient’s husband in Yellowknife as well as Northern Health Services Network staff this government has hired in Edmonton to help our northern residents who are sent there. I don’t have that information handy, but I would be happy to provide him information on the steps we took to assist with this situation.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
