Mr. Speaker, thank you. We know that the health system is collapsing. Every day there are more signs of distress. While I agree wholeheartedly with these words, they are not mine. Mr. Speaker, rather, they belong to the Canadian Medical Association who wrote, in August last year, there's no part of healthcare system untouched by the current crisis. The problem isn't physicians or nurses or healthcare workers. It's not one province or a territory.
Mr. Speaker, my constituents have been struggling with healthcare support for many years. The medical travel system is held bounded by the health department's inflexible and outdated policies, staff shortage at our stateoftheart hospital here in Yellowknife, our chronic and services have been reduced and likely to be even more curtailed as the government struggles to come to grips with this crisis. This is not an easy problem to solve but there are solutions.
Mr. Speaker, last year the Canadian Medical Association brought together thousands of professional patients and policymakers to collaborate on workable proposals that will fix many of the problems in healthcare. Amongst these are * expanding teambased care so many Canadians have timely access to family doctors and other primary care practitioners; creating national human resources strategy to rebuild Canada's healthcare workforce in a proactive sustainable way; improving workforce data collection across healthcare systems to track ongoing gaps in progress; investing in new training and education infrastructure to increase the supply of physicians, nurses, and nurse practitioners; introducing panCanadian licensure to make sure physicians are more mobile, potentially easing pressure on rural and remote communities, allowing for more quick and able crisis response amongst other benefits; scaling up virtual cases and leveraging the promises of artificial intelligence to improve access to care.
While the CMA may have solutions in the organized noted, what's missing is leadership and collaboration between all levels of government as well as with health professionals and patients who live in the current crisis every day. A lack of leadership and collaboration is all too familiar the story in this Assembly. Time and time again we have asked the government to work with this side of the House. Instead, we are stonewalled with policies and politics that get in the way of helping our constituents. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my Member's statement. Mahsi.
Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, Northerners want to know what the government is doing to solve our current health crisis; I mean real solutions and strategies, not lip service statements in the House and status quo in our health centres. So I'll be asking the Minister for a clearer and decisive action to make longterm overdue improvements in healthcare and I expect that she has the answer that my constituents, and all NWT residents need to hear, to be confident in their medical system is on the road to recovery. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife North.
