Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On Tuesday I made a Member’s statement and asked some questions concerning colon cancer screening in the Northwest Territories. I am frustrated that the Minister seems unwilling to meet with the Stanton Foundation to work towards real partnerships and potential solutions. However, as I indicated at the time, I am supportive of the Department of Health and Social Services’ direction to encourage residents over 50 to get screened every one or two years. Given the high rate of colon cancer in the Northwest Territories, this is the right thing to do.
Given that the health system is going to be doing this anyway, we need to make sure that it is ready for the increased demand on the system and that residents are regularly updated on their progress through the system and its current delays.
I have talked with a number of residents who have indicated that they are frustrated with the follow-up related to booked or potentially booked colon cancer screening. There are many people who are not intimidated by the health care system and will actively pursue their screenings. These people don’t get missed, as they make sure that they don’t get missed.
Unfortunately, there are a large number of people who are intimidated by the health care system and don’t follow up as rigorously as others; they rely on the system. Often these people can be overlooked or continually dropped or deferred from their screening exams. The individuals I talked with indicate that they aren’t contacted for extensive periods of time and receive no updates with respect to bookings. They are frustrated.
Missed appointments cost the system money. As a system we need to be proactive and conduct regular follow-up calls and provide reminders and updates to residents in line for colon cancer screening. I strongly encourage the Minister to have her department and Stanton review their processes for keeping clients informed, updated, and reminded about their screening appointments. As a system, we must own some responsibility for patients missing their appointments to do everything we can to ensure that appointments aren’t unnecessarily missed or forgotten. As indicated earlier, missed appointments are expensive on the system and a little bit of regular contact would go a long way to reducing the number of missed appointments.
At the appropriate time I will have questions for the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
