Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like earlier today, a number of my colleagues both had statements and asked questions regarding the closure of the Edmonton Municipal Airport and the planes being diverted to the International Airport. As such, I think they thoroughly thrashed around the concerns about being involved in the process of the advisory committee.
I think the next phase of this particular problem, really we should use this as an opportunity and perhaps maybe a call to action to address how we run our medevac system, Mr. Speaker. Our health system would issue a tender and have protocols developed as well as internal ones, whether it’s with health boards, whether it’s health centres, on how medevacs are called, as well as things like, for example, specs of airplanes, whether they’re using props or jets, examples like that, Mr. Speaker.
My question to the Minister of Health and Social Services is as such, Mr. Speaker: will the Department of Health and Social Services do a review on how we run our medevac system from the moment somebody comes in from a health centre that needs to be addressed through the medevac protocols and then the issues of the call to the delivery of them into the health service in Alberta? Would he be doing any type of review as I’ve sort of described? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When you look at the 18 recommendations, there are some very specific ones. Some of them will have technical impacts, logistical impacts. We are going to be looking at all of those. We are going to be doing the program as well as sitting down with the current provider for medevac services to look at any technical questions that may result. There are things that relate to the amount of gas, sites that are going to be used, the need for cross-training of crews. There’s a whole host of areas that have to be looked at carefully. So, yes, this report will necessitate a review of how we do business from start to finish as it pertains to medevacs.
I did have a chance to read the report and I was really glad that the Health Quality Council did it, and I want to commend them on their work and effort as well as acknowledge the staff from the Department of Health and Social Services on being involved on the ground floor to make sure our input was taken. But the report recommendations really focus on, in my view, is to once the plane gets to Edmonton and how they address those particular areas. My area of interest in my line of questioning here today has more to do with our internal process, the ones we can control and dictate. Like the old saying goes, you can point one finger but you’ve got three pointing back at you. This is our chance to look at these types of protocols we run within our own system. As I was trying to say earlier, instead of spec’ing in the contract that goes out to tender a prop plane, we can insist upon a jet plane, staffing levels, readiness awareness, things of those types of designations, the ones we can control outside of that.
Mr. Speaker, that’s the type of exchange I’d like to have here today and certainly that’s, hopefully, the type of observation and review that the Department of Health and Social Services… So I ask it in that direction, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister of Health and Social Services issue some type of instruction to review how we do our medical travel protocols? Thank you.
If the Member has specific concerns in the North about how we provide those services and if he’s suggesting, for example, that we change the specifications and require jets versus any kind of prop fixed-wing plane, that’s a discussion we have to look at. Everything has a cost, as well. We’re trying to manage our expenditures in this area and this is an area where the costs are constantly increasing, so we’d have to be very careful and clear. If the Member has some specifics that he thinks are worth review, I’d be happy to have that discussion with him. Thank you.
I want to thank the Minister for that particular answer. I think he knows exactly the concern I’m on, and I think I recognize that in his response from the last questions.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t know if I need my fourth question. My third one will quite simply be: would the Minister be willing to have a meeting with some of the industry reps from the medevac community? Again, if I could coordinate them in a very succinct way that had solutions to fine tuning our medevac process or system, would he be willing to sit down with them and discuss these types of issues and perhaps maybe we can find a nicer way, more efficient way? And recognizing cost is always an issue. That type of discussion. Would the Minister be willing to sit down with me and a coordinated group to, again, very particularly look at these issues to see what we could do to help? Thank you.
Thank you. There was just a meeting earlier this week among the providers, ourselves, the Health department, as a government, about issues pertaining to medevacs. As the Minister I would want to have an opportunity to talk to the deputy and to our own officials about what transpired in that meeting so that we’re not inserting ourselves into a process that may be well underway in dealing with a lot of the questions the Member raised. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was just hoping for a yes, he’d be willing to do that. But, actually, the Minister is correct about that last meeting, because I did bring in an industry rep a week ago just to talk about medevacs in general, and I was well aware of that particular meeting. Perhaps maybe what I could do is ask the Minister to commit to bringing me up to speed as to the information done in that dialogue with the group that take care of medevacs and to see if, once we digest that, there’s some input that can be offered, because I think the medevac community wants to be involved in the solution. The Minister is correct; cost is always a problem, but I don’t think it’s the one that should block us from the right decision and I want to ensure it’s productive. So I’ll ask the Minister to commit to bringing me up to speed as to what happened at that last medevac meeting. Thank you.
Thank you. I will commit to update and I will do that through the Social Programs committee, and I am happy to have any discussion with the Member that he thinks is necessary. But I will look at the results of the meeting and I will share that information with the Social Programs committee. As well, I’d be happy to have any kind of further discussion that the Member may require. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.
