Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a follow-up on my Member’s statement about the tragedy and non-response about our medevac plane into Trout Lake. I would like to ask a question to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
I would assume that there are targets for response times for medevac flights to each community. What is or would be the emergency response time target for the community of Trout Lake? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. The response time would depend upon what type of craft would be needed. In this case, they determined, after contacting the medical people in the Deh Cho, that a Twin Otter was needed. So a Twin Otter was configured as quickly as that can happen to get to the site would be the response time.
I agree with the Minister that when they get there would be the response time, but what I am really after here is we should have set targets, that if there is an emergency in the community of Trout Lake or any of our communities in the Northwest Territories, once that call is made, there should be a specific plan and time frame to get that medevac plane there.
It seems to me that there really is no targeted response times or standards for medevac or getting to our communities or responding to medical emergencies. Will the Minister make sure that there are emergency response time targets and standards for each community that ensures that failure to meet these times are documented? This seems critical to improving our systems in the future. Mahsi.
Again, depending on what type of craft is needed, what type of vehicle would be needed for the medevac would depend upon the response time. What I can advise the Member is we can ensure that when the call is received, that the medevac people are out as quickly as possible, as soon as they can get into the air. That is supposed to be the standard. As soon as the people are mobilized and the plane can be in the air is the time we’re trying to achieve. Thank you.
It hardly seems professional to have a medevac system such as this where it’s almost like a roll of the dice. If you put in your call and then say when they get there, that that’s the response time, that’s not enough for our people that want a safe and reliable medevac system and the comfort to believe in our health care system.
So, once again, maybe I can ask specifically: Is there a standard or what standard are we using to ensure that all residents of the Northwest Territories are taken care of when we’re using our medevac system? Thank you.
All of the standards for the medevacs are laid out in the contracts between Stanton and the people that provide medevac services. Again, it would be difficult to put an actual time period in any specific community because it would depend largely on what type of craft would be needed.
In this specific case, the plane that would be ready under normal circumstances to pick up a medevac was not suitable to go into Trout Lake. They had to reconfigure a different plane. That took some time.
I agree with the Member that there was too much time at the outset contacting the medical people, and we are working between ourselves, Stanton Health Authority, and Deh Cho Health and Social Services to determine what had occurred there and why there was nobody available to take the call immediately. We are debriefing to find out what exactly happened, and we will be addressing those issues. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The medevac system has to know what type of airport was at Trout Lake. I’m not too sure what’s going on there.
My final, short supplementary, Mr. Speaker, is to ask the Minister to investigate the medical travel system’s response to the recent emergency in Trout Lake and publicly report its findings not only to this House but also to the community of Trout Lake, who is still extremely upset about this whole ordeal. Thank you very much.
I can commit to doing that. I will commit to doing that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
