Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health of Social Services in follow-up from his Minister’s statement earlier today. I’ve been following the Minister of Health and Services’ plans to improve our territorial health system through the amalgamation of our eight current regional health boards into one territorial health leadership council.
On the whole, I’m pleased with what I see, but I do have questions. One of the original reasons for regional boards was to ensure a system responsive to regional needs in health care delivery.
Can the Minister tell me, what plans are in place under this new board, or will be under this new board, to address the individual health care requirements of our different regions and be responsive to them? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One of the key differences to what we’re doing in the Northwest Territories is coming to one authority. It’s actually the creation of these regional wellness councils which are going to be advisory bodies made up of individuals from the community and the region in which they serve. So for example, in the Beaufort-Delta we have a board, it is being run by a public administrator now, but that board will cease to exist. We’ll put in place a wellness council that will be made up of individuals from the regions, hopefully from every community, and they will have the ability to bring in community and individual perspectives, and then the chair of that regional wellness council will sit on the territorial board and be able to carry that information to a territorial level, which is something that has never existed in the North before. Thank you.
In the past I’ve been concerned about inefficiencies and inconsistencies relating to our delivery of health care services across the territory, as has, of course, the Auditor General of Canada. Lack of common procedures, duplication of resources are problem areas.
How will the proposed new health leadership council address concerns in the areas of inconsistency and inefficiency in the delivery of services? Mahsi.
As we move forward, we are taking into consideration all the recommendations from the Auditor General, because the Auditor General made the exact comments that the Member is talking about. When it comes to lack of clinical standards, right now, with eight authorities, we have eight different sets of clinical standards and they’re not always the same, which actually makes it incredible difficult to have one system and guarantee that all of our residents have the same level and access to care. So, as one authority, the regional wellness council chairs will come together, form the board, and that board will provide direction to the development of territorial clinical standards to ensure that all of our residents are getting the same.
There’s also huge opportunity here to get rid of some of the duplication of services or some of the areas we overlap, important functions such as purchasing, coordinate their purchasing so that we can purchase at a territorial level. It’s giant economies of scale and allows us to re-profile dollars where we really need them, which is the front line.
So there’s lots of opportunity here. We are still working on many of the details and I will be continuing to come to committee with those details as we move forward. First step is to get the legislation through the House. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. The Minister anticipated my next question. The department obviously has the largest O and M budget in our government, and most residents consider it the most important department when it comes to quality of life. So any savings that can be made in the efficient delivery of health programs will result, presumably, in increased health delivery.
Will the shift to the leadership council result in significant savings in the delivery of health care programs? I think the Minister has indicated probably. How much can we anticipate? Has the Minister identified any sorts of connotative estimates on the sorts of savings we can realize here?
I’ve been very careful not to say that this will save us a significant amount of money. This is about improving the services and the results for the people of the Northwest Territories and removing the barriers to care that exist, which are obviously bad for the patients. We anticipate an opportunity to control future spending through shared services like working together on things like purchasing and other functions, but it’s difficult to quantify what those savings will be. We are putting together a project team now to start working through some of these details, and as I’ve indicated, as these details work themselves out, I will be coming to committee with that information.
I just want to be clear; this isn’t about saving a whole lot of money. This is about improving the results for our people, which will ultimately save money but it will allow us to focus in and provide the care that our people truly need and expect. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my original question, I’ve been following the events leading to the creation of this council. It is, I believe, a very positive development, or will be when implemented, and the sooner the better. But recognizing the need to do this carefully and well, can the Minister give me an idea as to how much progress has been made and when he hopes to implement the health leadership council? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, this is a significant undertaking that’s going to take some time. We could rush it but I would be worried that we wouldn’t get it right, so we need to take the time in order to make sure we dot all of our i’s and cross all of our t’s and do all the work that is necessary.
Right now, as I have indicated, the first step is to bring forward the legislation that will allow us to create this entity. I plan to bring forward that legislation in the winter session. I hope it passes in the life of this Assembly. That’s my expectation. As soon as that legislation passes, my next step is to re-establish the wellness councils on an interim basis, because we don’t plan on having the legislation go live until April 1, 2016, which gives us between now and then, over a year to do much of the planning, much of the work to make sure that we roll this out as smoothly as possible. It’s going to take changed management; it’s going to take a lot of education; we are going to make sure that staff are aware and involved.
We want to do it right, so we want to make sure that we take the appropriate time, and the legislation will be in front of committee in the winter session. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
