Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Sunday will be Father’s Day. I’m hoping that the Minister of Health and Social Services could deliver some good news. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister of Health and Social Services please explain the existing support for families during the delivery of their children?
Masi. Minister of Health and Social Services
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are physicians across the Northwest Territories providing obstetrics services. We also have midwifery services in Fort Smith, Hay River, as well as the MORE OB program up in Beaufort Delta, and we have birthing here in the Northwest Territories. Unfortunately, and I think it’s to the Member’s point, there are individuals that do have to come out of their smaller communities to centres like Yellowknife or Fort Smith, Hay River, or Inuvik to facilitate birthing. To bring those individuals in, the mothers, we do bring them in on medical travel and we do provide, whether it’s one of our boarding homes or other mechanisms, places for them to stay when they have to come to one of the centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for acknowledging that. Our challenge with supporting family, yet from small communities, pregnant women have to be brought here for their own safety and wellbeing at Yellowknife, and they stay here for extended periods of time, and they’re separated from their children. Can the Minister explain, how does the department support fathers to ensure that they could be with their spouses during the special moment at delivery?
Mr. Speaker, unless there’s a clinical need, medical travel isn’t available or escorts aren’t available for birthing mothers who have to come to one of the centres, and it is up to the family, the father, to find their own way to the central location where the birthing is going to take place.
Mr. Speaker, there’s been discussions in terms of the efficiencies in terms of government spending and revenues, and one of the focus points has been the issue of medical travel. Will the Minister commit if there is perhaps down the road an opportunity to review the program, would the Minister commit to ensure that the involvement of fathers during the delivery of their children is considered with the view of trying to support families in that special moment?
Mr. Speaker, medical travel is actually currently being reviewed and one of the pillars that is being reviewed is escorts when and how they should be supported. We did go out for public engagement. We got a significant amount of feedback from residents across the Northwest Territories as well as other stakeholders and we are moving forward with that plan. I’ll have a conversation with the department, certainly, and I’m certainly willing to continue to have a dialogue and discussion with the Members across the floor about what we should be covering under escorts. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear a commitment from the Minister. Will he commit once again to support the review of medical travel at the same time with the view of support and follows to be involved and besides their spouses, during the moment of delivery of their children? Yes or no? Masi.
I’m not going to commit at this time to covering fathers during birth, but I will certainly look at exploring the possibility of how we can be, you know, provide better support and other mechanisms. But at the end of the day, our medical travel is incredibly expensive. We have escorts for certain criteria. Criteria like a patient who is under 19 years of age who needs an escort. A patient who is breastfeeding an infant and requires an escort. A patient who has a medical or physical disability of a nature that they require an escort. There’s a lot of criteria that we have to apply and in the situation of birthing, those situations may not apply unless there’s a clinical need on behalf of the mother. But we will certainly look at it, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral question. Member of Hay River North.
