Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my constituents travel medical appointments either to Inuvik or they're travelling in from Inuvik to Yellowknife if they can't be serviced, and if we can't do the servicing for medical here, we're sending them to Edmonton. My constituents fly all the way from their home communities who it probably take five days in return to going to the community. They wait for their appointment especially, you know, some of our cancer patients. We've lost so many people this year due to cancer.
We do need a health advocate Mr. Speaker, in the Inuvik Regional Hospital to assist our communities, to making sure that the people are getting to their appointments, information is shared on the patient, and so likely what's happening. This means that the travel dates in the right place for the right times for their appointments, to be on time, because I got a couple of concerns from my mayor from Ulukhaktok that patients are traveling and they're not having an escort; they're getting to their appointment, there's no appointments.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, sometimes things get missed, appointments, but they don't book the flights, book the travel. This means sometimes residents need treatment and they don't get it at the right time. And this has to stop, Mr. Speaker.
We need a patients advocate, again. We need somebody to help the patients in the communities that are at nursing stations to help them because they're overworked already. Our nursing staff, our health staff, they're overworked and they need their patient advocate out of Inuvik to help assist them to do their job. You know, sometimes they get calls at one in the morning or a text message and they're saying I travel at 9 o'clock, I never got no travel yet. I'm not going to wake up the Health Minister, Mr. Speaker, at 2 o'clock in the morning saying I need travel done for somebody. I'll send her a text message, and Julie's been good about it, the Minister has been good about it, get back to me first thing in the morning and we try to get it sorted out and try and do good for the patient. But Mr. Speaker, we do need a health advocate in Inuvik. I will have questions for the Minister on where that health advocate is for the community, to assist the communities out of the Inuvik Regional Hospital. Thank you Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Members' statements. Member for Monfwi.
