Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was regarding medical travel from the communities of Ulukhaktok and the surrounding communities that I represent. Will the Minister commit to working with the various departments and agencies and programs to implement changes to provide to the communities an improvement in the administration of medical travel to prevent future patients from having to wait in their communities or transient centres while in pain?
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is the first time that I’ve heard the specific facts that the Member has stated. I will be happy to work with the Member and see how we can improve that.
This is the second time I’ve brought it up. We can look at Hansard from last year. When a patient is in pain in our communities, they must be flown out on the next flight no questions asked and to the nearest hospital. There is no reason that is good enough to have patients suffer needlessly, especially when it is due to overbooked planes. How does the Minister expect people to wait in their home communities in severe pain before a medevac is warranted?
The Member is right; I am aware of the situation where the patients waiting were bumped off, but I was not aware that there are only two seats assigned. I was not aware that there were seat assignment situations. By and large we do move a lot of our residents around to receive the care that they need and obviously we can always do better, so I will undertake to review how we deliver that and where we can improve it, we will do that.
In the community of Ulukhaktok they have two airlines that fly in there: Aklak Air going into Inuvik and First Air that flies here into Yellowknife. Would the Minister let the patient have a choice regarding where they go for their hospitalization or checkups? A constituent told me a similar situation that at the time they had to wait due to cancellation because of lack of passengers. Will the Minister take the initiative to make coordinated alternative arrangements for scheduled medical travel flights had been cancelled?
Yes, if services can be provided either in Inuvik or Stanton, I will ask the staff to make sure that they consider both options. Also, yes, I agree with the Member that we do need to do more and better to have a more smooth transition of patients, that we need to keep better track of what’s being cancelled. Just better coordination. That is something that my deputy minister and I are focusing on, because we are reviewing the Medical Travel Program. I hope to report back to the Member on how we can improve that.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.
