Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. I just want to give a little update on some issues related to health and social services in Hay River.
Mr. Speaker, the new hospital or the new health centre in Hay River is well underway, creating a lot of activity and it looks like things are right on schedule. I had the occasion to have some first-hand personal experience with our health services in Hay River in the last six weeks, and I want to report that it is a good system, that it does work. Right from the minute that I walked in the door, off to X-ray to see the physician, the follow-up X-rays, trips to the medical clinic, I have nothing but the highest regard for all of the people who are delivering services in Hay River and for the way that the system works.
As an indication of this, I wanted to share that, maybe since the last time we were here in this House, a health care professional at the Hay River clinic was awarded a very prestigious award by the Hay River Chamber of Commerce for the outstanding service person. So, for a business community that should be all about customer service, to award a person in the public sector the outstanding service person in a community the size of Hay River is quite something to say for the staff at our Hay River medical clinic, and that recipient was Mrs. Iris Blake. She is definitely an integral part of that clinic.
We have stood in this House so many times and talked about the lack of physicians in Hay River. As many will know, awhile back we signed a resident permanent physician by the name of Dr. Coralie Boudreau, and today I’m pleased to share that a Dr. John Desmond and his family will be moving to Hay River and will also be joining the Hay River Health Authority as a second resident physician for Hay River.
In this good news, we have to be willing to stand up and share that as well. In the meantime, we continue to be well served by our locums that are often on a rotation, where we see the same ones coming back to the community on a continuous basis.
Shortly, the Minister of Health and Social Services will be announcing the name of our new health centre. We look forward to that and of big things to come from this department. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
