Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on community health nursing. That was a great issue that Mrs. Groenewegen raised and it’s something I’ve been following for many, many years, the question of nursing in small communities. In her statement she asked basically what is the rationale, and I think the rationale is because there are no RCMP officers there. I don’t know if that’s a real policy.
I’d like to ask the Minister of Health what is the real policy about getting nurses into our communities, and if he has it, can he quote from it, can he show us? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of factors that we utilize when deciding whether to employ nurses throughout the Northwest Territories. The Integrated Service Delivery Model sets out standards for community health staff across the Northwest Territories. But as I indicated, when asked questions previously, it is under review and we are looking for ways to enhance the services in our small communities. RCMP is but one factor. It is not the deciding factor by any stretch of the imagination. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Once again, we ought to be maximizing community health nursing and develop that capacity.
Just a quick look at Nunavut, every community, with the exception of Grise Fiord, has a nurse, and the nurses form the backbone of those communities and the backbone of the health care delivery system in Nunavut, so that’s exactly where we’re getting. I’ve listed many, many times where the community of Wrigley needed a nurse, where nurses really could have increased assistance to that community. Just for instance, in December 2005, two nine and 10-year-old girls broke their legs and they weren’t treated for four days. In September of 2009, almost just over 60 percent of the community had flu-like systems during the H1N1 scare and there was nobody there to attend to them for about 10 days, so just a couple of instances.
I would like to know what our strategy is moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Just by way of comparison, it’s my understanding that every community in Nunavut actually has an RCMP detachment, which we don’t.
There are a number of things going on here, and I do hear what the Member is saying and I have indicated that we are going to review the ISDM to ensure that we are providing the right and appropriate supports in all of our communities. Right now the current ISDM services in communities doesn’t provide nurses permanent full time in communities with less than 250, but there are services that are clearly delivered in these small communities through nurse visits, physician visits. We have community health workers. We have community support workers. But I do hear the Members. I hear them clearly that we need to do more.
I will say again that we are reviewing the ISDM to see what kind of supports could be provided to the communities so that they get the health care that they are seeking. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I know that’s a struggle to get all the communities community health nurses. But in the instance of Wrigley, it’s about the return of nursing services. We had them there in the early ‘90s, and the community consistently asks me, why aren’t we getting our nurse back, what’s the issue there. Well, in fact, I made great strides in getting two dedicated RCMP for the community of Wrigley and establishment of a patrol cabin, as it were, so why aren’t we doing the same or even more to deliver health in our small communities such as Wrigley? Thank you.
As I have indicated, there are a number of challenges, and as I have indicated, we are going to be looking at the ISDM. I will certainly be having discussions with the Members that are affected or who are responsible for the small communities. But there’s no such thing as a one-nurse station. In order to provide adequate coverage for on-call, for overtime and all those types of things as well as to make sure that there’s balance between the different professionals, we would need two. So, there are a lot of other factors that we have to consider, but we are going to review the ISDM with respect to coverage in small communities and we will work with Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I certainly look forward to the department’s plan and I would like to continue to push for it. In 2010 I thought I had resolution over getting nursing delivered in Wrigley, and I believe it was Tsiigehtchic through the same Integrated Service Delivery Model he’s talking about, so I would like to continue pressing that forward.
Once again, can he show me the policy, the regulation, something in writing where it says we cannot have less than two nurses in a small community? Thank you.
I look forward to working with the Member as we move forward trying to solve this issue. Right now, as I indicated, the current ISDM doesn’t provide nursing services on a permanent full-time basis in communities of under 250 people.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
