Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services following up on my Member’s statement with what residents have been asking for, and one in particular is with the Midwifery Program and dollars that are being allocated for this program here that was a suggestion brought forth by Members of the Assembly. I’m just wondering what the intention of dollars that are being allocated for this Midwifery Program, where they are going to be allocated and what the intention is of those dollars. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The plan for 2013-14 in this budget session for midwifery is community consultation activities for Hay River, review and update NWT Midwifery Practice Framework and midwifery regulations, hire a Midwifery Program development consultant and midwifery project coordinator at the department to support ongoing planning and program development activities, Hay River community Midwifery Program planning activities, and community consultation activities for Beaufort-Delta communities. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, with all the mention of community consulting and consulting with Inuvik, I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services, is he familiar with the Department of Health and Social Services’ Midwifery Program review and expansion analysis midwifery options report of March 2012. Is the Minister familiar with that report? Can he confirm, please?
I am familiar with the report, I don’t have all the details of the report, but I do have enough details in the report to move forward in the direction that the department is taking it. Thank you.
Thank you. The Minister just mentioned that he knows enough in the report to move forward on what the report is saying. The report is saying we need a community-based midwifery report. I mean, if he knows enough to move forward on that, why aren’t we doing that and we’re going into consultation where the consultation is all done in this report? So it really makes me wonder about that.
Can the Minister kind of confirm why dollars are being spent in regulations and standards when our previous Minister of Health has this signed off on the standards of practice for registered midwives? Can the Minister justify why he’s putting more money into regulations and standards when there’s already one in the report? Thank you.
Thank you. Midwifery is not a cost-savings measure. Midwifery is to provide a service that will be put into place for the health of the children and for the long-term benefits to the health system. It’s not an immediate cost savings. Any cost savings that would come as a result of midwifery through medical travel and so on will be eaten up by incremental costs of hiring midwives. So we can’t approach this and say we’re going to put Midwifery Program feet on the ground right away and start seeing the results of savings. That’s not going to happen.
What will happen is, in the long run, as we expand a proper Midwifery Program, we’re going to see the development of the children that are working with midwives, and that’s why we’re trying to expand from a community Midwifery Program, which has regulations, to a regional Midwifery Program, which needs updated regulations, and to a territorial Midwifery Program, which will need further regulations. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been a long week and I came into the House this morning pretty tired and I needed something to wake me up, and I’m really glad the Minister’s statement did wake me up here, yup. There’s a lot of savings, this investment that we’re doing into midwives, and I’m really concerned about what the Minister just said in terms of cost-savings measures. There’s so many different cost savings, so many benefits. I’d like to ask the Minister where the report is and where does he get his findings from to justify and confirm what he just previously said in his statement. Thank you.
Thank you. Most of it is common sense. The reduction in medical travel will happen, yes, if you had midwives in Yellowknife. However, right now people are coming to Yellowknife to have babies. People are coming to Inuvik to have babies. That’s not going to change. Whether the midwives are in Inuvik or the midwives are in Yellowknife, that’s not changing. The people are still coming here. There’s still medical travel to come here. So that’s the territorial program, same with Inuvik.
Now in Fort Smith, about half of the people that are having babies in Fort Smith are still coming to Yellowknife. Now that they have physicians, that number may change. Hay River does not have physicians. So as we expand Hay River, we’re anticipating that similar numbers may result in Hay River. So there is where you will see some cost savings. Half of the people in Hay River may not have to travel to Yellowknife to have their babies. It’s a community program. However, the savings will be less than the incremental costs of hiring midwives and paying their salaries. It’s pretty simple.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
