Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. What premedical diagnosis policy is in place for patients coming into the average community health centre, for example? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not 100 per cent sure that I understand the question. I am not sure what a premedical diagnosis would be. When it comes to residents of the Northwest Territories in the small communities attending a health centre, we have a number of standing orders that the nurses in the communities utilize when assessing an individual trying to determine what, if anything, is wrong with them. We also have a number of standing programs that are available in each of our health centre, Well Man, Well Woman, Well Baby, and there are some pretty defined guidelines and the types of things that the nurses are looking for when those residents come to those particular programs. We also have the codes of practice for nurses as outlined by the individual licensing bodies which outline the practice and the types of things that the RNs can do. There are a number of protocols, standing orders, and procedures that are used by our practitioners when assessing an individual. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I welcome the response from the Minister. My next question on that phase of medical checkup, if you want to call it, on the principle of quality control is: is this practice being monitored on an appointment-by-appointment case at the end of the month?
Prior to moving to a single authority in the Northwest Territories, we used different protocols by regions and communities on how things were monitored and assessed. We now have 32 performance indicators that we utilize in the Northwest Territories and collect on a regular basis. That information helps make some evidence-based decisions moving forward. We are continually trying to enhance the monitoring that we are doing of the services and program delivery to make sure that they meet the needs of our residents, and we will continue to move forward. I am happy to sit down with the Member and go through his concerns and questions to see if we can focus in on exactly the area he is looking for.
I welcome the Minister's invitation. As we all know, we live in a small area and communication is really fast, faster than RC's fibre link for example.
---Laughter
The fearful word we are commonly hearing now, and I have experienced it quite frequently on requests for medical services, is the word cancer. In some cases, the medical staff are saying, “Here is a jar of Tylenol. Go home and come back later” kind of thing, just to summarize it up. Later on, as tests are --
What is your question, Member for Sahtu?
I thought I was at number 5. Excuse me. Yes, I welcome the invitation from the Minister. As part of the invitation, would he provide some information on the cancer proceedings on a preliminary diagnostic assessment?
As I indicated, as we are moving forward and rolling out the single authority here in the Northwest Territories, we are trying to improve the protocols and standing orders that we have in all of our health centres. We also have a cancer strategy -- I think the Member is talking specifically about that -- that outlined some of the services that we provide, but also some of the standard testing that we do in cases where cancer may be suspected. I am happy to sit down with the Member and go through some of the protocols that we have so that he will understand what service are being offered both at the front lines in communities but also all the way through the system to our territorial hospital here in Stanton.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
