Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Since February 2013, what action has been taken to secure a year-round licenced practical nurse in Tsiigehtchic? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have been working with the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority, and the CEO from the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services has been looking at options. Actually, we have looked at the licenced practical nurse options and the possibility of training a paramedic to remain in Tsiigehtchic. There are some systematic problems with just putting a nurse in there; although one nurse could accommodate that population, according to the delivery model we are using. However, it’s difficult to find a nurse and place a nurse in Tsiigehtchic when we don’t have other supports in the community such as RCMP. So that is what our issue is.
We’ve also looked at the possibility of bringing in a nurse from Fort McPherson that can actually spend some nights in Tsiigehtchic, but there would be some arrangement with the community for security in case there was a nighttime callout. Thank you.
That answered part of my second question, but I will ask the Minister, will the Minister… I actually find it very funny that we put a wellness worker, one wellness worker into the community but we won’t put a licenced practical nurse. So I’d like to ask the Minister what is the Department of Health and Social Services and the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority doing to remedy this situation.
In Tsiigehtchic and other communities where nurses do not stay, do not overnight, I know that during freeze-up and breakup in Tsiigehtchic we do place a registered nurse in the community on a full-time basis at that point. But to have somebody stay overnight in all these communities, we have not been able to do that just because of the situation.
The model is actually asking for a minimum of two nurses, if we are going to place nurses into a community, and also that there be RCMP officers in the community when we place nurses in the community. Therefore, that model kicks in at a certain population, and when communities have populations below that, we have to try to find alternatives to try to provide nurses in the community and that’s what we’ve looked at.
We have looked at various options but we haven’t come up with something that would work at this time. Thank you.
As I mentioned earlier, the community set aside housing for a nurse. Will the Minister work with the community leaders to find a way to put a nurse in that house?
Yes, we have, again, a plan to go into the community. I will go into the community myself with Health and Social Services staff, with the CEO, with the public administrator from the Beaufort-Delta, to try to resolve this issue. We are not trying to hide from the issue, it’s just we are having difficulty coming up with a solution that would work for everyone concerned. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It seems policy is the problem here. Will the Minister and the department work to change the policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We will work on the policy. As I indicated, Tsiigehtchic is one of at least six communities across the North that don’t have nursing units, therefore don’t have nurses living in the community. We are trying to work on the model that will allow that to happen. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
