Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to ask him some questions around a strategy which has been under development for quite some time. We all know that our health costs are very high. It’s the largest department that we have within this government. We also know that within that department that drug costs are probably the highest or it’s a very large percentage of that total budget. Both nationally and provincially people are looking to try and reduce those costs.
Members have been hearing since January of 2013 about the development of a pharmaceutical strategy from either the current Minister or the previous Minister. About a year ago the Minister advised committee about a number of things that they were doing in terms of the development of a strategy, that they were hiring people, they were looking into this, they were looking into that. Last month Mr. Dolynny asked some questions and we were advised the same thing. We were looking into this, we were looking into that.
So my first question is, where is the development of a pharmaceutical strategy as of today? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The pharmaceutical strategy isn’t completed at this point. We have had difficulty finding permanent pharmacy or a pharmacist to actually participate in this in the department and we have actually done some contract work with pharmacists to actually start moving on this. So it’s not done. We are continuing to move forward. I don’t anticipate the pharmaceutical strategy will be fully 100 percent concluded in the life of this government, but many of the components will be well on their way to being completed during the life of this government.
Thanks to the Minister. That’s unfortunate because on February 6th the Minister said to Mr. Dolynny that the final report is expected this winter. Now I just heard the Minister say that we’re not going to get it within this Assembly, so that’s disturbing. It’s more than two years that we’ve been waiting for this pharmaceutical strategy. I can appreciate the difficulties with getting expertise to deal with it, but that seems like a very long time.
The Program Review Office has been involved somehow in developing this strategy and assisting the department. I’d like to know from the Minister what the role of the Program Review Office has been in this development. Thank you.
A pharmaceutical strategy and the research and analysis are two different things. We will have a lot of that information prepared during the life of this government, but the full rollout of a comprehensive pharmaceutical strategy will take a little bit longer.
The Program Review Office has been doing some analysis into the costs and the implementation of distribution of pharmaceuticals through the health care system and they’re going to continue to do that work. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. So, we’re going to have some work done, and I appreciate it’s going to take longer to roll it out, but when can committee expect to see a report or a draft, some kind of concrete progress on a pharmaceutical strategy? Thank you.
We have been working on it. I can’t remember the exact date that we plan to have something available for the committee, but I will review my notes and talk to the department to get a concrete date for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I wait anxiously for that information on timing.
There are going to be many components of a pharmaceutical strategy and they don’t necessarily relate directly to the extended benefits that we provide at this time. Previously, Mr. Dolynny was talking about a catastrophic drug program for those large, expensive pharmaceutical treatments that we don’t provide support to now. Those will cover those for residents of the Northwest Territories who have incredibly high costs. We need to do the financial analysis, but many of those costs are hard to predict because many of these particular drugs or treatment programs are very rare or not used on a regular basis. But just as a note, they are not part of the Extended Health Benefits Program at this time, so it will not adversely affect that program. Thank you.
