Masi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] When I made my earlier Member's statement regarding interpreters for the unilingual elders, I would like to ask the Health and Social Services Minister a question. [Translation ends]
…to help the medical staff community with Dene elders after the medical interpreters have gone home for the day after 5:00, especially after visiting hours at 8:00, when family members can no longer be there? Masi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In our medical interpretation, we have seven official languages in the Northwest Territories that are offered at the Stanton Territorial Hospital. In terms of what's available after 5:00, we've limited some of the patients' visitors to most of our health centres and most of our hospitals across the Northwest Territories.
What we do have are some virtual services. On interpreter services, Stanton interpreters are available via the telephone and virtual care with an iPad, which is 24/7. We also have provided interpreters with iPhones and iPads to allow for a variety of virtual care options, like FaceTime and WhatsApp. Stanton also has a contract with CanTalk to provide interpretation 24/7.
I'm just trying to picture myself as a 91-year-old in the hospital, speaking to somebody in the Tlicho language, with an iPad in front of me or telephone beside me. I think it would be a very difficult, challenging task. They've never been exposed to that. They've been born and raised in the bush, and all of the sudden, it's an English environment in the hospital. I think we can do more, providing additional resources after hours. That's what I'm after. Could the Minister please describe the on-call system that the hospital initiated or instituted to make Dene interpreters available to assist these elders after hours?
As I've mentioned, it's a very difficult time right now where we're trying to limit some of the patients' visitors to come in. I think where the Member is going with this is asking, you know, what's available? I understand that we do have elders who are in care and are patients, and it's very difficult for them to be able to look at an iPad or an iPhone. Some elders do, and some elders really engage with that, because they like to see what's going on on Facebook and some of the activities that are happening on social media. However, I do understand that some of the elders, they don't have that. What we do have is we are looking at on-call for Tlicho.
I need the Minister to elaborate more on this on-call system that she's referring to. Is it in place now, or is it coming? It's just a consideration that the hospital is introducing a night shift for medical interpreters at the Stanton Territorial Hospital. Medical interpretation is such a complex system to interpret, so it's very important that we have interpreters available for these patients, Mr. Speaker.
The interpretation services here in the Northwest Territories is very important. I mean, the majority of our patients who are in care, are in any of our health centres, are predominantly Indigenous, and it's important that we have the available services to them. What the Member is asking is to describe what the on-call looks like right now. Right now, we do have an on-call for Tlicho. Any time a patient requires any assistance, we go through the process to be able to call someone and have them available for interpretation.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Monfwi.
Masi, Mr. Speaker. I think we can do more than just on-call. Again, I have to put myself in the position of an 86-year-old who was hospitalized a week ago, and that individual had a heart issue. The family left after 8:00 p.m., and there was no way of communicating with the nurse, and he was getting needles, and he was getting tablets, uncertain of what it was for.
Mr. Speaker, I'm just wondering of the Minister is open to the idea of creating more of an interpretation system, even improving that in Stanton Hospital. Masi.
I apologize for the situation that's happened over at the Stanton Hospital with the Member's constituent and patient. I am open to looking at options with the Member to be able to see what can we do to improve our interpretation systems in the healthcare system. I will commit to looking at some ways to improve. Right now, with the COVID situation, it's very difficult for us to do anything other than virtual. That is something that we can look at. Thank you, Minister.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
