Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. We’ve heard plenty in this House about the impending demographic shift, the rapidly increasing proportion of elders. Even before the 17th Assembly, the department was talking about moving away from long-term care facilities and toward more cost-effective home care programs.
In the Mackenzie Delta there are more than 300 elders over the age of 60 and yet there’s a chronic shortage of home care workers.
What is the Minister doing to improve health care in Fort McPherson and other communities in the Mackenzie Delta? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member mentioned in his statement, Our Elders, Our Community has been released as a framework for taking action to support seniors and elders throughout the Northwest Territories. Under that document we are taking a number of actions, including developing a number of action plans. One of the action plans is about respite home care for seniors throughout the Northwest Territories, which will benefit all residents in the Northwest Territories including those in Fort McPherson and Aklavik.
The Member has mentioned a couple of times that he has concerns about the workload of the home care workers and the home support workers that actually happen to be in Fort McPherson. I’ve asked the department to work with the Beaufort-Delta Health and Social Services Authority to do a quick assessment on the workload in that community to see if those home support workers are actually at a higher workload than other areas, at which point I will share that information with the Member and we could have some discussions about that if we need to take some immediate action. Thank you.
This week we’ve been discussing the Health and Social Services budget and hearing quite a bit about system transformation. Also, in some of my past exchanges with the Minister, he has stated that system transformation will include a review and renewal of the Service Delivery Model. So, taking this a step further, I’m wondering if the Service Delivery Model specifically addresses home care workers. In other words, does the Service Delivery Model include a population base formula for determining the number of home care workers assigned to each community, and if not, where are the decisions about home care workers actually made? Thank you.
Thank you. The Member is correct. I mean, as we move forward with system transformation, we are doing that work and that work does take into consideration population, but it also takes into consideration the demands, as well, because not every situation has the same demands. A home support worker in a community could have a multiple number of clients and some of them could be simple with maybe a visit a week. Others are going to take a significant amount of work. The demand will change in communities as the needs of our patients change over time. So, we need to be able to be flexible with that, as well, but we will continue to work with Members and keep them posted as we move forward on transformation as well as keeping them up to date on the work we’re doing around the design as well. Thank you.
I know the department tracks a number of performance measures. I’m wondering: does it track patient satisfaction and program effectiveness, specifically for home care. If so, I’d like to ask the Minister to give the numbers for the Mackenzie Delta communities. Thank you.
We actually do conduct a number of performance or satisfaction surveys throughout the Northwest Territories on different functions. I can’t say for sure whether we have a specific one in the Beaufort-Delta for home care, but I will check and I will confirm that with the Member at a later date. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
