Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. The department of Health and Social Services medical travel escort criteria policy is a ministerial policy. What does that mean? Does it mean that the Minister has the sole power to change it, and if they did, will they add elders to that criteria? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The medical travel escorts are determined by need, by the medical practitioner, not by the age of the person who is travelling, so I don't see that we need to change the policy right now, that an elder, by default, needs a medical escort. That's really up to the elder to decide. Thank you.
Just to add to that question, then: I know for a fact that I've seen letters from practitioners be denied because it's not on this criteria list from the ministerial policy, so will the Minister look at the policy and adding something in there that would consider elders on there?
The medical travel policies were revised last year, at the end of the 18th Assembly, and one of the new features is an appeal mechanism so that, if someone is denied an escort, then it is possible for that person to fill in an appeal form and file that with medical travel and have it considered. The only hitch to these, though, and I get lots of these crossing my desk, is that people need to plan ahead. Medical-travel people work a regular day. There is an on-call function, but I find they get a lot of last-minute requests. If the person who requires an escort is denied, there is an appeal mechanism, and good planning will get a quicker result.
I think I'm just going to put aside these other questions because, every time she answers, it just brings up another thing. The people are waiting for medical travel to get their travel and then, when they get their travel, they are denied. Will the Minister look at this policy and see? Because, as a medical travel person, if you get your travel the day before you're going to leave and then you have no escort, that's why it ends up on the MLA's desk, or an email to the Minister.
I need to do some work to understand where the gap is here. I know that the medical practitioner is the starting point for requesting an escort and that goes to medical travel and the staff there make a determination. It's not up to me to create exceptions. The policy has the exceptions in it, and as I mentioned, there is an appeal mechanism for people who feel it has been applied incorrectly.
I want to add one more thing. There is confusion that I've seen between the need for a medical escort and the need for compassionate travel. I have seen medical escort requests where what the request is really for is for family reunification in the event that the family member in hospital is about to pass. I think there is some clarity that is needed, here, and I can certainly work on my end of that. I look forward to working with the Member on her end.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to working with the Minister on this because I have a lot more to add than these four questions. The other question I do have, since it's the final one, is the issue that I also brought up in my Member's statement, which is the hotels. Medical travel, we send people to the boarding homes here in Yellowknife and in Edmonton. Lately, more than I can count, they have been going into the hotel, in the hotel downtown, where there is no restaurant. They are getting delivered meals, and the meals are -- I'm sorry, but we get a lot better meals here than our medical travel patients. I'm going to say that because it's unfair. It's unfair to our medical travel people who are staying there. We need to look at what is happening there, and we need to either give them a hotel that has a restaurant with vouchers or give them per diems. Will the Minister commit to looking into what is going on there? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do make a commitment to look into what is going on with the meals. Thanks.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.
