Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services today and I want to follow up on my statement. I asked some questions in my statement with regard to the Medical Travel Policy and I specifically noted two ministerial statements previously made in this House during oral questions, I believe. Both Ministers categorically stated that patients 65 years and over do get a medical escort when they have to travel outside of their home community. So I’d like to know from the Minister of Health and Social Services whether or not that is a policy currently and, if it is not, when did this change? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. That is not the policy and, from what I understand, it was never the policy. We have been looking at medical travel, we’ve completed a report on medical travel. We see some issues in medical travel, we’re pulling medical travel from Stanton back into the department, but from what I can see, that has never been the policy. Thank you.
Thanks. I think I thank the Minister for that clarification, I don’t necessarily agree with him, but I have to then ask the Minister when we have two previous Ministers of Health who have stated that 65 years and over patients are allowed a medical escort, what weight does the Minister’s statement made in the House carry? Why did that not translate into a policy change? Thank you.
Thank you. We confirm that two previous Health Ministers had said that anybody over 65 years old would get a medical travel escort. However, the policy does not indicate that. That was never written down. It was said in the House. It’s fairly clear in which case we allow non-medical escorts for patients, but age is not one of the factors. Thank you.
Thanks. To the Minister, these weren’t commitments that were made to individual patients or to a specific situation. These were statements and these were confirmations of a policy change that was meant to apply across the system and it was meant to apply to the policy in general. So I’d like to know from the Minister, he says no, that that policy does not currently allow for age as a factor in escorts. Again, when a Minister makes a commitment in the House, why is it not followed through and the policy amended? Thank you.
Thank you. The Medical Travel Policy is a Cabinet approved policy. So at the end of the day, the policy, when an individual is requesting an escort, the request comes from the physician or the nurse. So a physician of some sort, the patient’s clinician I should say, would make the call and ask for an escort and then medical travel would then apply that request against the current policy. So the reality is the program has just been generally following the policy as set out by Cabinet, essentially. So this is why the commitments were made generally that everybody over the age of 65 years old should get medical travel. I don’t know, but I can say that if we were to follow the policy, that’s not in the policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks. So I guess what the Minister is telling us is that whatever Ministers say in the House really doesn’t carry any weight. If it contravenes a policy which is already in existence then, oh, don’t listen to the Minister, just make sure that you read the policy and the Minister must be making a mistake. So really, that means that any commitment by a Minister in this House doesn’t mean anything, and I have a serious problem with that. To the Minister of Health and Social Services, knowing what he knows now that there have been two previous commitments to this change in policy, will he incorporate this change into our Medical Travel Policy as it is reviewed?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. I’ll remind the Members to show a little bit of respect in this House for other Members in regard to the positions they hold. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We think it’s important to make changes to the Medical Travel Policy. We have many issues with the policy. We actually know of cases where individuals that didn’t speak English were sent to Yellowknife or even Edmonton where they said translation could be provided. Clearly, in the Medical Travel Policy it says that a patient would require an escort if they needed translation. We have some issues with the policy on how it is being applied so we want to centralize back into the department. It is essentially done for the whole territory out of Stanton and I think out of Inuvik also. We would have to look at that again and try to develop something that made sense. I don’t think there should, actually, if you just look at it from a common sense perspective, I don’t think there should be a magic number which is 65, that once you hit 65 you all of a sudden need an escort to go about your medical business, whether it be here or down south. I think we should apply something that is reasonable and I don’t really think it should be tied to age.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
