Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Later today I’ll be asking the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services some questions on the Community Health Nurse Development Program. This program is a competency-based, on-the-job training program to train nurses so that they’re competent to work in community health centres.
It’s a great program, but research shows that this program, since it was developed in 2005-2006, has graduated about 20 nurses into community health positions. Of these, 14 are still working as community health nurses in the Northwest Territories and, for the record, six of these individuals are indigenous aboriginal nurses who have either returned to their home communities or to their regions.
Bottom line, this is a great program. My concern today is the fact that over the summer I’ve heard from a number of people that this program has either been cancelled or that it has been postponed and there’s no intake, or that it is being reviewed and it may no longer exist in the near future. Given the success of this program and the value this program adds to our health system, I’m very concerned by these rumours that I have heard. So today I’ll be asking the Minister whether or not this program exists, and what we’re doing to ensure that it does continue to exist, and what we’re doing to get nurses in community health centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
