Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was feeling ignored. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services about medical travel policy. So I spoke of a terrible circumstance that happened to a constituent of mine when they were sent to Edmonton under emergent circumstances and were incapacitated and very much on death's door. And thankfully they've now recovered. Their spouse was denied on their claim to go down and provide care and support. So I'd like to know why do we have why is it okay for a spouse to travel on a scheduled trip but not during a medical emergency when end of life decisions may be required? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, generally, clients who are in the care of medical escorts are not provided with or sorry, with medical escorts are not provided with nonmedical escorts. So that would be in the instances if somebody is medevaced. Air ambulance and emergency services are excluded under the NWT medical travel Policy. But the department is aware that and does acknowledge that there is an emergency service policy that could include escort criteria. Again, as I've just obtained this department and I know we're going to go through a fulsome review of our medical travel and how we move people around, you know, we know that this is another gap in the area; however, when we are moving patients like, the escort policy, the nonmedical escort policy, does not pertain to when someone is medevaced unless that person is a minor and falls under the criteria that it is although there is exceptional circumstances under our medical travel policy that go to the department for an exception request. But the NIHB does this is the quirk that I found out, and so it causes an imbalance and inequity in how services are provided. NIHB beneficiaries may receive a nonmedical escort supported when this kind of situation happens, but those each are approved through the northern region office right through directly through NIHB. So that's separate from the Northwest Territories medical travel policy. And I know when we say medical travel policy, everybody thinks that's just one area. But even my 15 years, 18 years, even as an NIHB navigator, becoming the Minister and trying to get the fulsome picture of this has been piece by piece and so this was a new thing that I kind of realized today. So thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate this is a mandate item as well, to fix this problem, but, I mean, we have when we hear stories of people who are being asked to zoom in to their loved one who is intubated at a hospital and make decisions for them because that's the option instead of flying them down, I don't know how that's compassionate. So will the Minister specifically review this set of circumstances where there are people who cannot advocate for themselves, who are in critical condition and require a spouse or someone who can speak with power of attorney or on their behalf to make those decisions, will she review the policy to make sure those people are covered by medical travel? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can review it, but we do have the exception policy. So the role of the health care practitioner is to make the assessment, provide the recommendation for an escort. That recommendation must be explicit to the reason for a request. A lot of times the request is care and compassion, and I get that you know, if I could give everybody a care and compassion escort, you know, I would not be liked by my colleagues very much. You know, because it's going to be like, the amount of people that are travelling in the Northwest Territories I think we provided a report, and I can find that report and send it off to Members. But I think we move about 40 to almost 50,000 people a year in medical travel and so if every one of those we were to give an escort to, you know, it starts to it adds up. And so but it's also the role of the physician who is making the recommendation to be specific on the needs of what that person is doing. Like the Member said, and I won't speak to individual cases, but they have to be very specific. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I'm not talking about every case, certainly not every all 50,000 people we move. We're talking about a narrow set of circumstances. When people are in critical care conditions, when they are incapacitated or sedated, they're not able to make decisions for themselves, they may be at end of life, can the Minister agree to review the policy around those individuals who require nonmedical escorts to be their advocates when they're in that situation; can she commit to that? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have committed to it in the business plan. Like I said, it is in the bigger picture. I understand the Member wants this specific area but then the other Member wants a specific area, and then if I go down the list and throughout the next four years, every Member's going to have their specific instance. So we need to make sure that we have all compiled all those instances and come out with a policy that's fair and equitable for the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Mr. Speaker, the story I told, that's $6,000 outofpocket for a retired couple. I have another constituent that's $7,000 outofpocket. People work paycheque to paycheque in the Northwest Territories. They can't afford these costs. Will the Minister take action and commit to solving this problem? There's a whole bunch of problems but this is a very specific one affecting a small amount of people in a very significant way; will she solve this problem? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm going to I have answered that but what I'm going to say, it is not a specific instance. I have since Minister, five months, I have received numerous and numerous and thousands and thousands of dollars that people have spent on, you know like, myself, if I had to fly out if my child was sick or my motherinlaw was sick or my you know, my family member was sick and I had to jump on a plane and go and be with them, you know, I would be outofpocket as well. But I do get these BFs constantly and so this like I said, I am looking at it. I know that there is an area that there is a gap, but it will be part of the overall review. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
