Debates of August 17, 2007 (day 12)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services, Minister Roland. It goes back to my Member’s statement from earlier where I was talking about recruitment and retention and government strategies. We’ve been discussing this recruitment and retention issue in the Northwest Territories for the last number of years, at least 10, 12 years now. We spend millions of dollars on consultants, on reports, on staff and, to be quite frank about it, it’s not really improved any. I’d like to start off by asking the Minister how it is that our reliance on agency nurses and the money we spend on bringing nurses in from Newfoundland and Honduras, how are we going to move away from the reliance on agency nurses so that we can develop a workforce that’s in the North, that’s on the ground here? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Mr. Roland.

Return To Question 143-15(6): Agency Nurse Usage

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I must say the Member has been consistent during our time here in the 15th Legislative Assembly on raising issues from our Stanton Territorial Health Authority and the hospital, where other nurses around the territory have to rely on the normal process through their union processes that we negotiate. The question is a good one because it gives me an opportunity to highlight where in fact we have made significant moves and improved significantly the use of and how we’ve worked with nurses in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, the 2006-2007 year was, indeed, one of our highest uses of agency nurses during that year. In fact, that year we had over 5,000 days of agency nurse use in the Northwest Territories, which was quite a concern, has been a concern to us throughout. We’ve heard it from Members; we’ve heard it from communities. So one of the things we did was work on a new contract and work with authorities to reduce the use of agency nurses to fill only where emergencies were in place. We have developed a relief pool. In fact, so far in 2007-08, up to June 30th, we’ve only used 561 days of agency nurse use. So I think we’ve made a significant move and we’re starting to see the results of the work we’re doing. In fact, I mean we have to acknowledge that the nurse issue hasn’t reduced across the country, not just the Northwest Territories, but we are doing our part. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 143-15(6): Agency Nurse Usage

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’m wondering if the Minister and the government have ever given any consideration to a return of service for new grads from southern universities in the nursing profession that could look to coming north and raising families here and spending, you know, four or five or six years on the ground here in the Northwest Territories, and in return the government could look at paying off their student loans. Because, as we all know, tuition fees across the country are rising, the cost of getting an education is increasing, and I think we need to be looking at creative ways to try to get nurses on the ground here. The Northern Nursing Program has been successful and I think that would be a nice accompaniment to that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 143-15(6): Agency Nurse Usage

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that’s another area we’ve been working on, is going to southern universities and colleges to attract the new graduate nurses to the Northwest Territories. I’d have to check on what sort of incentives we have. We know for the Northwest Territories we have one of the best systems in place through our Student Financial Assistance Program, as well as what we’ve done through the Community Health Nurse Development Program, or the CHN Program as we call it, and trying to take our nurse graduates right out of their courses and give them additional education opportunities to go into our small communities, by covering bursaries as well as the fees and salaries to cover and help authorities in that area, and that program is starting to pay off as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 143-15(6): Agency Nurse Usage

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Keeping with the staffing issue, I’d like to ask the Minister exactly where is the staffing utilization review report that the ministry and Stanton were conducting at Stanton Hospital? Where exactly is that in the process of being released? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 143-15(6): Agency Nurse Usage

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at the request of Members, as well as from just our own internal look at it, we decided that we needed to do this work and I committed to bringing that report back to Members. I hope that we can have that and I believe we should be able to provide that to committee before the end of this session. Hopefully I can deliver it to committee early next week. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roland. Final supplementary, Mr. Ramsay.

Supplementary To Question 143-15(6): Agency Nurse Usage

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I find it really hard to believe how it could take a year to do a report like this. From what I understand, the report is not completed to the liking of Stanton. Maybe it says something they don’t want it to say. So what is the real issue and why can’t the Minister today, almost nine months after this was talked about last October, initiated in February, like that’s a long period of time. Why isn’t the report ready to be looked at by Members of this House? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Roland.

Further Return To Question 143-15(6): Agency Nurse Usage

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we should be realistic in the fact that with as many employees over at the Stanton facility, we’ve gone into a process where we do a survey, and it was done through the Bureau of Statistics, that they do a survey with employees there and one out of every five goes into a further in-depth survey and that’s the report we’re working on. We are not playing with that report. In fact, I believe that report will come back and show for the majority of things there’s satisfaction with the work around that facility, the work environment. There are a number of issues that will be looked at, but hopefully as we sit down and we work with committee and go through that report and look at what can be done.

As well, Mr. Speaker, for the record, I should state that through our Community Health Nurse Development Program we support 100 percent of all costs incurred, including salary and developmental for northern nurse graduates, costs there, and 50 percent of the salary and 100 percent of the developmental costs for non-northern nurses. So we are looking at incentives of bringing nurses to the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.