Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I spoke of the story of Allisdair Leishman, as presented in the media, and his apparent lack of physiotherapy care. Can the Minister of Health and Social Services verify that long-term care patients in general received, indeed, two hours a week and not two hours a month for such care? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We don’t have long-term care patients in the hospital, but my understanding is that we might be talking about patients in extended care.
Right now I understand that basically what happens is that it’s based on clinical need. So the clinical need for an individual in long-term care is they get two hours’ worth of physio per week, and then they’ll get two hours’ worth of physio per week. If there’s a requirement, only two hours per month, then that’s what they get. It’s based on a clinical need of the patient. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister clarifying. I think the concern of many is that the existing level of rehabilitation services offered at Stanton is the issue. I’ve had many professionals from there indicate that being limited to two hours of services for in-patients is, as they say, make what you can make of it.
The system is failing here. It appears that outpatients – WSCC, DND, RCMP and auto insurance clients – are given urgent status over in-patients. The solution is very simple: prioritize your high-level, extended health or long-term care in-patients versus your non-urgent outpatients. Will the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to this simple fix to help prioritize in-patient care over outpatient care at Stanton Hospital? Thank you.
Thank you. The outpatients are not given priority over in-patients. Again, all patients are prioritized. There are more outpatients, there’s no question about that. People in the hospital, mostly the extended care people, are receiving physiotherapy from one physiotherapist and we have seven physiotherapists that are doing the outpatients. So based on clinical need and also given priorities given to patients who are unable to go back to work because of issues where they would need some physiotherapy in order to get back into the workforce, but they’re not given priority over in-patients.
Thank you. Consistency of delivering health care across the North is paramount. Establishing the proper protocols for priority care is extremely vital.
Would the Minister of Health and Social Services commit to a complete NWT overhaul of the health care delivery in long-term care, extended care programs, which would establish the proper rehabilitation, prioritization tools and using evidence-based testing means? Thank you.
Thank you. I would commit to a complete overhaul of the system, but we are looking at all of the areas, including this area. Like I indicated in the House many times, we’re looking at what it takes to keep patients in their home as long as possible before they go into long-term care. When they’re in long-term care, then we provide some physio. When they’re in extended care, we provide some physio and so on. So there are some things being done.
There are some gaps, there’s no question about it, and so we’re looking at the whole system to make sure that we can fill the gaps. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My emphasis here is on consistency. We have here at the Hay River hospital, they use evidence-based testing for their prioritization schedule. Stanton Hospital does not. My ask is quite simple. Can we provide or will the Minister commit to look at an overhaul so that we have consistency from hospital to hospital, from long-term care to long-term care as we proceed with the 17th Assembly? Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, we’d like to provide the same care to the people that have the same clinical needs. So if the clinical needs in one hospital are the same as the clinical needs in another hospital, then the care will be provided on an equal basis. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
