Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a followup question to the Minister of health from some of my questions yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister has said that there will not be job losses associated with COVID COVID funding sunsetting but it is not clear to me what changes may occur to where staff were placed in the system. Can the Minister describe in more detail what changes are proposed and how that will affect frontline operations at Stanton? Thank you.
Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the funding and I guess I tried to explain this yesterday that the COVID funding that has come to will come to an end as of March 31st, there are going to be funding for was there for positions but like I said yesterday, there's no job losses because we've been increasing those numbers on those units with casuals and float and relief workers. And, you know, specific to the concerns that, you know, the Member is raising is the new funding that we had that I announced yesterday is to replace a lot of those positions that you know, to incur some of that cushion for those positions that COVID funding is ending, so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So can the Minister describe to the House what the department is going to be doing to ensure that frontline staff, particularly nurses, are continuing to be supported in their roles in our hospitals in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in any one of our hospitals, not just in Stanton, but in any one of our hospitals, so Inuvik and Hay River, you know, the thing is they all have a manager, they all have someone that they have level of acuity. So any given day it's not the same every day. And so the beginning of every shift, you know and if we're going to get down into operations, the beginning of every shift there is a level of care that's needed for those patients. I mean, I can talk about this all day. I don't know if the Speaker will give it to me but what I can say is that, you know, these patients that the patients that we have and the conversation that we've been having is nursing assistants from the Member's statements yesterday. You know, there is a higher level of patients that need and we call ADLs, activities of daily living. So those are patients that high needs for their you know, they need help with assistance with eating and bathing and those types of things. Those patients are sitting in our medicine units and our acute care units and they you know, and so we need extra nursing assistance to do that, and that's what this money has been providing. And with the new funding, you know, there are positions there that are going to mitigate that. So if there's a concern that there's not going to be adequate staffing levels, like I said yesterdaywe will not compromise patient care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions, the time is up, Members. Oral questions.
Written questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
