Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Health and Social Services regarding the written request that I asked for information on the cost of physicians and registered nurse visits to Tsiigehtchic. I noted in the response, the Minister stated that there were eight physician visits to Tsiigehtchic between 2008 and September 2009. She also made reference to nurses-in-charge have made 20 visits to Tsiigehtchic between October. All together, between the two positions, it’s 28 days they visited Tsiigehtchic, which is less than a month.
I have been asking this Minister for going on two and a half years to find a nurse for Tsiigehtchic. Today we’re no closer than we were two and a half years ago. I ask the Minister, when are you going to find a nurse for Tsiigehtchic in this decade, before you leave office, before we leave this House? Can you get an answer to me so that the people in Tsiigehtchic know that we are going to deal with this issue and not continue to slide it on to the next group? I’d like to ask the Minister when the people in Tsiigehtchic will have a full-time nurse in their community.
Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect, the information that the Member just read should be read together with other information that we have provided. The information on nurses-in-charge, we know that we’ve had at least 36 weeks of nursing coverage in Tsiigehtchic for a community of 170 people. The Member knows that I am committed to enhancing nursing services in Tsiigehtchic and all the small communities. That is the work we are doing with Foundation for Change. It is wrong when we tell the community members that they don’t have nursing services. We have nursing services in Tsiigehtchic. I understand that there is not a nurse living and sleeping in Tsiigehtchic all year round, but for a community of 170 people we have 36-week coverage by a nurse. It works out to about 10 hours a year for doctor service. So we are doing the best we can to provide services in Tsiigehtchic.
The community of Tsiigehtchic want a full-time nurse in that community, just like any other community of similar size in the Northwest Territories. That’s all we’re asking for. To continue to stand here and say, well, we’re providing services, but they might come in once a month or twice a month is not service. For me that’s a referral system that this government is turning into. I’d like to ask the Minister what efforts are being made to get a full-time nurse in Tsiigehtchic.
Every effort is being made to make sure that we provide a good health care coverage to everyone in the Territories. The community of Tsiigehtchic is getting better service than any other community that size in the Northwest Territories.
Well, the Minister hit it right on the head; that is the problem with your service system. The service system you have for small communities is a referral system; it’s not a service system. I’d like to ask the Minister, since you’re the one that raised it, what are you doing to provide service to all the communities of the Northwest Territories so we have services that are real services, not referral services where you find somebody to come in and check you out, they find out your sick and medevac you out?
I’d like to ask the Minister if you are going to do anything to improve the services in all the small communities in the Northwest Territories so we can really actually see a quality of health care for all our small communities in the Northwest Territories that really meet the needs of those people and provide them adequate health care.
I tabled in the House about three weeks ago satisfaction surveys from residents all over the Territories about the services they’re receiving in health centres and hospitals. Over 80 percent of people say they are satisfied with the services they have. It is wrong... I understand the Member would like to have a resident nurse in Tsiigehtchic. A lot of our services, even in bigger communities, are by referral services. We’re not able to have resident doctors, resident nurses, resident radiologists, resident everything in every community. We do spend $326 million for 40,000 people scattered in 33 communities. Our services are managed by eight boards and we fund boards in block funding and they are doing everything they can to provide as much service as possible to every community. If you compare any data, Tsiigehtchic gets really good service for the people that need. We will continue to work to improve that.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask a direct question to the Minister. I’d like to ask the Minister if you even have the capacity to do this job or should we find someone else to do it.
Mr. Krutko, I would ask you to direct your questions to the chair. Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member has been here for 14 years, and he asked exactly the same question, and he understands the challenges we face and the challenges I face as the Minister of Health. This government is more daunting than we’ve ever had before. We have demographics that are changing; needs are changing. We have increased our budget by a large percentage, but our boards are struggling to provide all the services that they need. All indicators are showing that we, by far, are doing better than any other place for this kind of remoteness and this kind of size and the challenges we are facing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
