Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last night the Premier and health Minister presented to the Standing Committee on Social Development on their new health system sustainability unit. I want to be clear that I commend the Premier for taking this action and support this initiative.
Mr. Speaker, I also wanted to get some comments on the record about this initiative. I heard staff saying they're not just looking at reducing service but repeatedly referring back to the core services inventory, so it really seemed to me like services are currently the focus and appreciated the Premier's reassurance in that regard and just wanted to, again, get my comments on the record that I want us to look a little deeper.
Mr. Speaker, in March, the territorial medical association sent a letter to the Minister of health titled Restoring Balance with a number of recommendations for improving system sustainability. Those recommendations included reducing unnecessary medical travel, reducing inefficient administrative tasks, workforce planning, and optimizing partnerships for quality improvement. So there are a lot of changes aside from just service reductions that we can look at, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the NWTMA advocated for reevaluation of the health system's leadership model. This included the following recommendations which are particularly relevant to assessing the current management structures. They recommended that we analyze the efficiency of the current administrative model, including identifying and reducing any duplication of management positions between health and social services and NTHSSA and supporting a distributed leadership model that encourages problem solving close to the source rather than top down decision-making.
Mr. Speaker, when we talk about system sustainability, we need to be talking about the management and staff retention concerns Members have been detailing repeatedly in the House this sitting and have pointedly emphasized in our accountability and oversight committee report read into the record yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, I stand by that report and support and encourage the Minister to take bold and decisive action to address these issues. As a start, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to see a public acknowledgement by the Minister of the significant systemic issues facing our health care system and public communication of a comprehensive plan to address them. Mr. Speaker, the principles of good leadership and management tell us that listening to frontline staff is key to effective decision-making. Let's listen to our doctors' and nurses' suggestions and carefully consider them in reviewing health care system sustainability. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the system sustainability unit needs to rate options based on potential savings level of impact and ease of implementation, and I can't overemphasize enough the need to use change management principles and comprehensive planning when changes are proposed. We have to plan out our changes carefully to ensure effective implementation. Mr. Speaker, we are in this together. I know the health Minister wants to see change. I know MLAs want to see change. And staff want to see change. Let's get it done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member from Deh Cho.
