Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. About four years ago a child from Trout Lake could not get authorization for a medevac plane for a serious illness. The grandparent was deeply concerned, not to mention the stress of the mother. He consequently chartered his own plane because the child’s lips were turning blue.
While in Fort Simpson, the doctor said, “It’s a good thing you brought her here,” because she had a case of severe croup, potentially life-threatening for a child without medical attention.
Can the Minister of Health and Social Services explain exactly how the new Med-Response would handle a situation like this? Would it be the same, or would they be able to make a call for a medevac that will save a life? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Health, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Prior to the implementation of Med-Response, a nurse in a region, regardless of the region, would call a physician who was associated with that particular region. For instance, in the Sahtu, if there was no doctor available in Simpson, they would call the medical director who may be located in another province, which was often the case, who may not have known exactly the current status of our air ambulance team. Now with Med-Response, rather than trying to figure out who a CHR or CHW in a community like Trout Lake, they would actually call one number in the Northwest Territories. On that number they would have direct access to health professionals who can make decisions and provide immediate diagnosis and direction to the CHRs in the communities, which in the case of that child would likely have resulted in a much quicker time for an air ambulance to get into that community and get the child out.
The bottom line is the CHRs and CHWs throughout the Northwest Territories as well as all nurses in our health centres have a number to call that will give immediate access to health professionals, whether it’s an emerg doc, pediatric doc or any other specialist, plus NPs and, at the same time, have the air ambulance dispatcher on the phone at the same time so they can all make a united decision together. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am very pleased to hear the explanation from the Minister. Of course, this is not the first time the residents of small communities had to call their own plane because a medevac was thought not to be necessary.
I would like to ask the Minister about what assurances and successes has the department had to date because they have been up and running since November, I believe. What assurances and successes have they had to date in responding to emergencies? Is there documentation or evaluations in place or contingency checks on the effectiveness of the Med-Response system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Since November 30th we have been in a soft launch phase, which is basically a trial phase to work out some of the bugs that we assume would come in with this new state-of-the-art program. We wanted to make sure that we got it right. We have only just recently gone live and we continue to evaluate. There is actually an evaluation mechanism in place to monitor the calls and help us continually improve and evolve as the times change.
In the test phase we coordinated 698 clinical consults from all the authorities; 351 were air ambulance flights. We were actually - I think this is incredibly good news - able to coordinate one aircraft to pick up two patients from different communities, both going to Edmonton, and we used the same aircraft to get them down there, so we were actually able to combine our resources and get some serious benefits.
Also, during the test phase, there were nine different situations where a health practitioner from a community called into the Med-Response unit believing that they needed an air ambulance, but once they received full consult from doctors and specialists in Yellowknife they were able to avoid the need for air ambulance. So we were able to reduce the number of air ambulances that have actually been dispatched. We have been able to get economies of scale by having a pick-up of more than one patient and we have been able to provide significant clinical advice and consults to our communities when they are in need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I am pleased to see some of those results and, as well, it’s about restoring the confidence of the people in the smaller communities that our system will be there for them. Further to that, how will they augment the training for community health workers to work and learn this new system? I would suggest perhaps bringing them to Yellowknife to see the facilities and to meet some of the staff of the new Med-Response centre that they will be dealing with, hopefully not on a daily basis but it is always good to have a familiar face when you’re on the phone, especially in times of emergency. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
At this time there hadn’t been plans to actually bring professionals into Yellowknife to see the facility. What is important is the dialogue that occurs between the health practitioners in the field and our Med-Response team. We have put together some documentation manuals to help individuals understand the terminology and how things work. I do take the point; it would be good for our employees to see them become more familiar. I will certainly work with the department to explore training opportunities to ensure our staff are as familiar as possible and have an opportunity to be effective with the use of Med-Response. So we will certainly look at opportunities for training. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I noticed that the Med-Response system is not open to the general public. Maybe the Minister can explain that. In previous emergencies and times of distress, not only the health care worker was calling the regional centres but the family themselves wanted to hear the answers from the nurse in charge or whoever’s in charge while they wait however long for the medevac and that kind of stuff.
What kind of public information is out there to help families in times of distress? Perhaps it will complicate things if everybody is phoning, but what does the Med-Response system see for the public? Thank you.
The Med-Response is not a public program. It’s a program for the staff to help coordinate the internal workings of the system to make sure our staff on the front line have the information they need. They will be able to transmit or translate any of the information received from professionals on the line to anybody who happens to be in their health centre or health station. It’s not open to the public. The public aren’t expected to call that number. It is a functional, internal process that helps coordinate all health services in the communities when required by the health practitioners in the communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
