Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, it’s a good day. My questions are to the Minister of Health about the program of midwifery.
Can he give me an update on how other programs on midwifery are being rolled out currently?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Following the plan, we have put money into the Hay River region for two positions. Those two positions are filled. The next step is, obviously, we are planning to put some money in the budget for 2015-16 for Inuvik. In the meantime, we are working with Inuvik to explain the protocols and procedures that will be followed in that jurisdiction and we are hoping to fill those positions in 2015-16.
As we begin to roll out more midwifery programs, will this program speed up? Will we be implementing two programs in one year, or are we doing one a year? I guess we are learning our process as we go. Can we speed the process up?
Every region, every community in the Northwest Territories is different and has their own unique realities. The plan was originally to put them in Hay River one year, Beaufort-Delta the second year and then move forward with Yellowknife. We are also exploring the possibility of putting it in other communities and regions. Only recently the Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority has approached us with an indication that they would be interested in doing midwifery services there. We are working with them to see when we might be able to roll that out. We do have a midwifery coordinator position within the department that actually helps us do a significant amount of that work. That position, unfortunately, is currently vacant. We are out recruiting for that position today. We are hoping to have that position filled by December, which will help us continue to roll this work forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I guess people are anxious to have this program in all their communities. I’m just wondering how many other communities – he indicated the Deh Cho – and what are the limitations in implementing this type of program in the communities.
We have gone to the Beaufort-Delta and started having some initial conversations with the people in the health centre there. They raised concerns that are unique to their own hospitals or health centres. We want to make sure that the Midwifery Program works in the regions and communities based on the protocols that already exist in those areas. That would have to be true coming into Yellowknife. We would have to make sure it works in the system and in the infrastructure that we have here.
The Deh Cho is different, once again, in that they don’t actually have a hospital. They have regional health centres, so we would have to modify the program to suit their needs. So every region, every community is going to take some modification to make sure, during the deliveries, the mothers and babies are safe and they have proper connections with physicians at all times. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As these programs go out, what kind of evaluation have you done? My biggest concern would be actually a funding requirement, if the programs are underfunded.
What evaluations are the department doing as they roll it out for the funding needs of these programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
That’s part of the work that we’re doing in the design or the implementation in each of the different communities or regions where we deliver this service. We need to track the types of things that are happening and put in an evaluation framework so that we can make some evidence-based decisions moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
