Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It can be very difficult for people in small communities to renew their prescriptions for various drugs. Of course, there are no drug stores and no doctors in most Nahendeh communities.
In some ways our medical system makes the process more difficult than is really necessary. For example, when an elder has a prescription for a medication, why does it need to be renewed every few months? That means a doctor’s appointment that is not always easy to get. And if you run short of a prescription and the doctor isn’t coming to town for another month or so, it could mean ending up with a trip to Fort Simpson. This causes both inconvenience and expense to people who are often on a limited budget, and it’s just not fair to people living in small communities. I’m sure it also costs the health system money that could be spent on other priorities.
It seems that some prescriptions have to be renewed biannually but require an appointment with a doctor in Yellowknife. Again, that is a real expensive way of doing things. I know the Health Minister understands life in small communities and I hope he will do something about this. No one living in the larger centres faces this sort of inconvenience and extra costs.
A better way of managing this is to allow continuous prescriptions. This may help reduce costs across our territory, because I wonder how much of a doctor’s time and money we waste on appointments for extending necessary ongoing prescriptions.
Half the battle in designing a good health system is thinking about what will happen at the community level. We should always ask, if we do this, what it will mean for patients out there. If we take that approach, I think we can improve the system quite a bit.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
