Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said in my Member's statement, the NWT has no access to -- does not have access to a medical communication system that's vital for diagnostic imaging which requires health care professionals to put scans on disks and then send it down with patients on appointments on medical travel. Can the Minister speak to what her plan is to resolve this so we can bring our health care system into the modern era. Thank you?
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are currently seeking -- we are working on the procurement process for the new electronic medical records. As I've said in this House many times, our EMR is coming to an end. They will not be supported any longer. But what I will say is is that -- you know, the things that the Member is raising, it is -- we are well aware of these issues and that's why the urgency on this RFP going out to ensure that the procurement process rolls out. And then depending on the system that they think that meets the needs will depend on how long that rollout takes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it took years to implement the current EMR system across the Northwest Territories. My concern is that this RFP won't go far enough to correct the issues that nurses and doctors are experiencing. So can the Minister reassure our health care workers that this RFP will address these concerns throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, and I appreciate the Member's bringing this up. And as far back as I think it was 17 years ago is we started rolling out EMR and then up until last year was the final community that received the rollout, and now the program is not able to be supported. So I agree with the Member that this -- the process, and I know the technology has changed. I know that our access to internet throughout the territories is much better than it was 17 years ago, so as I have more details as the procurement process and the rollout of that, I will provide -- you know, I'll offer a briefing to the Members if that's what they choose. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, nurses and doctors have to deal with as many as three systems, not just one. Only -- I think only one of them is electronic. The other two are paper systems. So what is the Minister's -- will these changes phase out paper? Let's just leave it limited on Stanton where a lot -- a great deal of these issues are creating bottlenecks. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not going to delve down into which programs. Yes, there are multiple systems and that is the problem, is that none of them inter -- none of them talk to each other. And so when physicians and any practitioner has to access blood work or the appointments or the charting tool, yes, they have to log into multiple different levels. They're -- you know, they have to have -- they can't get other staff to support them because of access to information and all of these different barriers, and those are all of the things that we're looking at. And there's been many -- I think it says we've engaged over 400 individuals in the requirements that we're gathering to do this RFP, to be able to do the thing that the members and the staff -- that they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Member's willingness to share information with this side of the House, and I'll take her up on that at the appropriate time when it's available.
Mr. Speaker, the diagnostic imaging partner site is in Calgary. So we send our requests to Calgary, they send it up to us, we put it on a disk, it goes back to Edmonton. Can the Minister look to find a new partner in Edmonton so we're -- because the systems in Calgary and Edmonton don't talk to each other either. So we have multiple systems in multiple jurisdictions that aren't talking to each other. So can the Minister explore this, try to find a partner closer to where our patients go in Edmonton, so we can stop this triangle of sadness? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can commit to looking into what the process is and why we're using Calgary and not in Edmonton and all our patients are going to Edmonton. Yes, I'll commit to looking into that process. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
