Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our face-to-face services for medical travel have been critical and expected, especially where language and communication barriers exist. Up until now the medical travel office has been located in Stanton on the main floor directly across from the intake booths, which has been a great location especially for individuals coming in from out of town, from the small communities, the grannies from Nahanni who wish to have actual communication with the medical travel office. Now it’s gone. Now we’ve moved it behind locked doors, security windows, and there is no face-to-face contact whatsoever. Now it’s all phone and e-mail. I’m confused. There doesn’t appear to be a transition plan. If there is a transition plan, I’d like to know what that is.
My question today is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. Was a transition plan designed and implemented to help those individuals who are using medical travel transition from an open and friendly face-to-face service to a rigid and closed-off digital and telephone services? Right now I find that people are surprised, not notified, and they’re confused, not informed. To the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Member’s comments. I listened carefully to what he said in the Member’s statement. I would be happy to convey his concerns and the questions he has to the administration of Stanton Hospital and get back to the Member.
I’m quite happy to hear that. I’m glad that the information is going to be sent to them. I’m more interested in getting a commitment from the Minister that she will have Stanton implement a comprehensive transition plan. Given that there is an empty office out there and I saw with my own eyes that there was nobody in there, it was completely vacant, no sign of anybody using that, I think it would be good if the Minister would commit to bringing back one of the medical travel officers and putting them in that office for a transition period to give the people an opportunity to transition from a face-to-face, open system to one that obviously the department is not interested in having face-to-face contact. Will the Minister commit to doing that?
Mr. Speaker, I would absolutely, yes, commit to the Member to get all of the details that he is asking for, transitional measures and the plans, and discuss with the Member and get input from the Member. Thank you.
I’ll go back and read Hansard, but I’m pretty sure I’m talking about some action, not just a request for some information. I’m asking the Minister to commit to actually taking one of the medical travel officers back, putting him in that vacant office as part of the transition plan. If eventually we want that person to move out because we want to move to a phone and digital service, that’s fine, but help us understand and build a transition plan so it’s not a turn off of the switch, it’s not a no service from service. So will the Minister commit to putting somebody back in that office?
Mr. Speaker, yes, I would not preclude that option, but right now I think it’s important for us to get the information from the authority as to what they have being planned for the front office. I think everybody here knows that space in a hospital and that sort of a facility is more a premium and so we need to hear from the administration as to what their plans are. I would be happy to share that with the Member and come up with an action plan together and seek input from the Member as well as the Standing Committee on Social Programs, if necessary. So, yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to working with the Minister on that. I understand this base issue and I’m glad the Minister brought it up, because it’s my understanding that they’re taking the medical travel out of there, which is a face-to-face and has traditionally been a face-to-face sort of service, and instead they’ve put the director of medical services in there, which isn’t a face-to-face service type position. In fact, the services that that director is responsible for is ophthalmology, clinical services and medical travel, all of which are out of Stanton. So why did we take a director, which has no face-to-face service with clients, and stick him in prime, prime client service face-to-face contact location and move medical travel, which is historically a face-to-face service, and stick him behind closed doors? It kind of seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that they got it exactly backwards. I’m hoping the Minister can help me understand the logic behind that, because, quite frankly, I don’t see any.
Mr. Speaker, I take the Member’s point and he’s asking questions and making suggestions. He brought this issue to me yesterday. I’m committing to the Member to get the information from the authority as to exactly what their plans are. They may have a very good explanation as to the move and what other plans that are part of this move. So I think it’s important for us to get a full picture of if there are any other related issues surrounding that, and then when we get the full picture, of course, I’ll welcome the Member’s input on what we can do better or do differently or anything else. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
