Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to ask a question to the Minister of Health and Social Services while I have this opportunity today. I’ve be listening to my colleague Mr. Krutko and my colleague Mr. Menicoche talk about the nursing services for Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley and even with all the debate and questions that’s gone back and forth, I still don’t really understand one thing. Is the ability to put nurses in these communities a financial consideration? Is it about the financial resources in order to do this?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Member for the question. It is financial in one way, but actually it’s much more than that. It’s operational as well. In terms of governance, we deliver our health care services through regional authorities. They’re provided with a block funding. They have services that they need to provide; nursing services being one crucial item. But they do not fund or they do not spend their money per community. They provide nursing coverage for the entire authority, a lot like school boards. Teachers get hired by school boards and they are employees of the board. The same with nurses. They get hired for the board and they get placed and sometimes they are resident in their communities, but in many cases like the Beaufort-Delta, in all our regional authorities, they travel. They provide services in whatever is needed and actually the authorities need some flexibility to make sure where there are vacancies... And the nurses are not all the same nurses, they have all different skills. For most of our authorities, they need to be able to use their resources where it is most needed and for many, many small communities, they are travelling nurses and they try to give as many hours as possible to all communities for nursing coverage and other essential services. Thank you.
So I understand that it is an operational issue to some extent and that regional health authorities have the ability to determine how to distribute those resources. What role does our government play in setting the standards of health care delivery on the basis of a population or a community? Surely there must be some role that our government plays in terms of determining the level of service. I think that there had been some considerable work that had been done on that. What role does our government have in determining that?
Obviously, the money is a big factor, but also our authorities are guided by our direction, such as the service delivery model that I’m sure the Member has heard about for many, many years now; the Integrated Service Delivery Model. The Foundation for Change Action Plan does speak to where our focus is and the goals of that plan are wellness, access and sustainability. So when we’re talking about health care services, we’re talking about making sure all our residents have access to health and social services, and for some communities it is some of the resident support. But the priority is to make sure that every resident in the Northwest Territories has essential services, access to the services, but they may not always have them living in their community. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I can fully understand why Members representing small communities would consider having a nurse resident in the community to be a very important thing. Access sounds nice, but it doesn’t address the issue of emergencies and just, I suppose, the comfort level people have knowing that there is a qualified health care professional in the community should the need to receive services arise. It’s complicated, the answer, but does the Minister at least acknowledge the issue around the quality of life that’s realized in these small communities if they had a resident health care practitioner in the community? Thank you.
I absolutely totally understand that and I think it’s much more difficult for the communities of Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley because they had a resident nurse and they now no longer have that since 2003. There are many communities in the Territories of similar size who have never had a resident nurse. What is really important for people to know is that if a community doesn’t have a resident nurse, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have the health care they need. The community health reps and other care providers are in constant touch with medical professionals all across the Territories. There is no community where local health care professionals are practicing in isolation. At any given time, the doctors and nurses across the Territories are in touch with all the communities and when patients present themselves, they are diagnosed and assessed by all the professionals in an equitable way. Mr. Speaker, there was one more point I want to make, but I’ll just finish it there. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the House there’s been a lot of discussion around the number of days that the health care professional or the nurse or the doctor would visit the community that people could have access to the service that they like, but they do not stay there. It’s not a continuing thing. I understand the resources would not necessarily allow the very small communities to have someone resident there. Has the Minister ever considered approaching this from the possibility that there may be retired, semi-retired people who have been involved in health care their whole life who would really appreciate an opportunity to make a difference in these small communities and maybe work in those communities on a part-time basis as opposed to being a full-fledged full-time position which would cost the government a full person year in wages and support? Has the government ever thought that there may be people out there who consider the North a place where they would like to make that kind of contribution and really have the ability... Maybe they have worked in a big city hospital their whole life and they would like to come to a small community and work there and maybe only be paid on a part-time basis, but have the experience of living in the North and have an impact on the community. Thank you.
Absolutely, and right now at this moment we welcome any nurse: the young nurse, the young graduates, the retired, the part-time. Anybody who wants to work three shifts, we would take any nurse. Mr. Speaker, qualified nurses... We have about 400 nurses registered, I believe, under the Nurses’ Association, but we continue to have 30 to 40 percent vacancy rates of nurses and other health care professionals. Communities like Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley have the equivalent of one PY and that’s equivalent to 2003 and that is a part-time position. So the community of Tsiigehtchic gets half a year nursing service and that would work out to what you would spend if you had a nurse four hours a day. Since 2003, since we adopted a new model, our labour practices have changed. So if you want to have one full-time nurse in any community, you really need the equivalent of two and a half PYs. So if the Members are willing to consider having a part-time nurse, half a day in a community, we could accommodate that. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
