Mr. Speaker, the digital age dawned so long ago that now our kids are almost born with a smartphone in hand and could not ever contemplate a world without high-speed internet. Indeed, our kids are now teaching us how to use our own laptops and phones. Yet, here in the NWT where the latest generation of health care professionals enter the workforce, they are forced into the way-back machine to relearn obsolete technology. Why? It's because NTHSSA still sends most diagnostic imaging onto CD-ROMs while other jurisdictions continue to upgrade dedicated medical communication networks. Using CDs to transmit and store vital data circumvents secure medical communications and therefore poses risks to both patients and medical providers, like leaking confidential information or opening the door to ransom ware attacks at a time when health care institutions are increasingly targeted. It should come as no surprise, then, that health technicians in other provinces are fed up with the NWT's backwards system.
Those aren't the only risks outdated systems have to our patients, however. Our cumbersome medical communication often prevents physicians down south from even accessing data at all. A patient sent for a CT scan in Edmonton would need their imaging sent to Calgary to be finalized and then sent back to Yellowknife to be burnt onto a CD for NTHSSA only to be sent back down to the appointment in Edmonton, on a CD I might add. That data may not arrive on time or be damaged resulting in physicians missing vital information and having to order whole new sets of CT scans which can bombard patients with 500 times more radiation than a simple chest x-ray.
That level of unworkable obsolescence is only matched by medical professionals here having to deal with three different charting systems, some still only available on paper. Sure, endlessly printing charts and burning CDs might save us from Y2K if it was 1999, but it's 2024 and we need to get with the times if we want more efficient public service. Our doctors and nurses can't keep working in the past; we need to bring them into the future. Thankfully, we don't need Doc Brown's DeLorean; we just need a Minister willing to work to bring our health care system into the 21st century. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. Members' statements. Member from Monfwi.
