Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are going to be for the Minister of Health and Social Services in regard to the Oral Health Action Plan that I mentioned in my Member's statement. In the action plan, I see a lot of it is generated around changing community health nurse standards, community health nurse guidelines, pre-natal, post-natal. What I want to ask the Minister is: knowing we have shortage, and I know we have some really excellent community health nurses, but a lot of times, with the shortage, we don't have community health nurses; we have a lot of emergency room nurses going into the health centres. So, with all these changes that are in here, how do we expect these nurses to make sure that they are providing this oral healthcare, when that is not their background? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member brings up a good point. I mean, it's very important, and I just want the Members to know that the dental services are not an insured service and are provided privately by dentists. Non-Insured Health Benefits, or NIHB, provides funding to bring dental services to smaller communities where there are no dental clinics. The Member is talking about the NWT Oral Health Action Plan and some of the results as a part of the action plan, and I can look into what the Member is asking. I don't know at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker
I understand who provides care, and I understand that dental service is not an insured service, but, like I said in my Member's statement, it affects so many insured services. We do provide health promotion and, according to the action plan, a lot of that is health promotion, and our front-line nurses do provide a lot of that. In the action plan, there is "new oral health positions using a phased-in approach," in the first year, 2018-2019; second year, 2019-2020; and a third year, 2020-2021. Where are those positions? Have those positions been created, and where are they so far?
I don't know the exact details. However, I do know that we added one registered dental hygienist in Norman Wells, and we are currently investing $974,000 in upgrading dental equipment across the territory. Otherwise, I don't know exactly where these positions are.
Referring back again to the action plan, it also says that it's going to establish a chief oral health officer role. Like in all the reports, we know that this is such a crisis in all Inuit, First Nations, Metis, in the territories. It's a crisis. Mr. Speaker, you're coming from a small town; you know the services are lacking. Is there a job description, and are we currently recruiting for a chief oral health officer role?
Again, I don't know at this time, but it's something I will look into and get back to the Member.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
One of the things that I would really like to know is: how does the Minister see the health centres providing oral healthcare as the nurses -- because it is. It's in here. Although they're not dentists, they are supposed to do the primary stuff, but on top of everything else that they do. I just want to know: how does she expect them to get everything that they have to do in their day on top of all of this? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Very difficult questions. Again, I am not sure at this time. However, we are rolling out and expanding our prevention services and updating dental equipment in the dental rooms, both in the schools and in the health centres. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
