Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As it stands, the service delivery model does not authorize funding for a full-time nurse in Tsiigehtchic. Last October Minister Abernethy told the House that his department is looking into best practices in other remote areas in Canada and around the world. The purpose, he said, is to access our service delivery model and examine models from other jurisdictions to see how, if at all, they can be applied here in the Northwest Territories.
Minister Abernethy further stated that, “A review of the Integrated Service Delivery Model, medical travel, community health work training and the utilization of telehealth are being incorporated into the review of this review.”
Will the Minister give an update on the status of these reviews and what can be expected in the way of a renewed Service Delivery Model? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Health, Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The reviews the Member is talking about are all part of the entire health transformation we’re going through right now where we’re looking at how we’re providing services in all communities throughout the Northwest Territories in order to enhance services. That work is ongoing. The legislation will be coming in front of this House shortly and the planning will continue through to 2016, when we hope to go live.
But at the same time, we’re not just waiting for that to happen. We are implementing Med-Response, which I’ve mentioned several times in the House. We did a soft launch in November and we’re looking at doing a hard launch here in the middle of the month. During the soft launch of that program, we have seen that communities where there are no nurses, CHRs are able to call into that number and get the support and direction they need.
We are trying to do a number of things, and at the same time, we continue to review what other jurisdictions are doing around other types of professionals, community-based professionals, people from the communities that provide services in communities like Tsiigehtchic. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, Minister Abernethy stated in this House that he has been told that one of the major concerns in remote communities is emergency response. He also stated, and he just mentioned, that the department is in the midst of rolling out Med-Response, which will have a direct positive impact on the service delivery in places like Tsiigehtchic.
Can the Minister inform this House when residents of Tsiigehtchic will have access to Med-Response and how can they access it after hours? Thank you.
In addition to Med-Response, I also mentioned some training on first responder training. I know that MACA has already begun delivering training on first responder in Tsiigehtchic. I believe that started in June 2014.
With respect to Med-Response, the residents are not the individuals who would call Med-Response, it would be the professionals in the community; in this case the CHR or CHW that happen to be in Tsiigehtchic. Thank you.
I don’t think the Minister knows some of the situations that the community goes through. Many times a lot of these emergencies are during the evening, even after midnight sometimes.
What can the community do in situations like this? Many times when people phone these numbers for assistance, they are asked to give basically the diagnostics of what the patient is going through. Many of the people that are responding don’t have this medical training. You almost have to be a doctor to get help in our small communities.
What can our communities do in cases like this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, this is true for all the communities in the Northwest Territories where we don’t have emergency rooms, so many of our small communities are in this particular situation.
When an individual in one of these communities is sick or experiencing an emergency, there are numbers they can call into their health centre, whether it’s a community health nurse or, in the case of Tsiigehtchic, CHR or CHW, or in Tsiigehtchic they may actually choose to call the emergency room. Those professionals will still be able to contact Med-Response to help coordinate medical response in those communities it if requires medical travel or air ambulance but also to provide some clinical direction. So those individuals will still need to call the numbers that they call today.
If the Member has some concerns about the numbers that need to be called in Tsiigehtchic, I would be happy to sit down with the Member and address those concerns. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are still waiting a formal policy change in the service delivery model. In the meantime, I have a practical suggestion. The current arrangement has a nurse visiting Tsiigehtchic one day a week for most of the year.
Will the Minister commit to funding a nurse to spend two days a week in Tsiigehtchic instead of just one, as most of that is due to travel? Thank you.
In Tsiigehtchic, a community of 128 people, we do have a public health nurse going in there one day a week. I hear the Member; we will certainly take that under consideration, but we also have two times a year where there is a public health nurse in the community for six weeks at a time. There is some room for discussion and I would be happy to have that conversation with the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
