Debates of October 30, 2024 (day 35)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. So Yellowknife residents recently received a letter in the mail from the health authority informing us about the new primary care teams and crucially assuring everyone that even if they don't currently have a family doctor assigned to them, they would now be assigned to a team with a family doctor on it. So while that's a laudable goal for every resident, why was this commitment made at this time when each primary care team still only has less than two full-time equivalent physicians per team and that would mean that more than 5,000 patients would be assigned to each team; why was the commitment made at this time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the Member's question, what's happening here is is that part of the primary care reform. So, you know, whether we move to four teams within Yellowknife, those teams have been equipped with -- from the ten teams that they had that did not have enough staff down to the four teams that -- you know, they've been placed and that way the remaining of the people in Yellowknife can be assigned to that team. Not every person on that team or in Yellowknife needs to have access to a physician. What they need is they need access to a health care provider. So within that team, they will be, you know, seen at the -- whatever their need is to the scope of the practice of that person that's on that team. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So does the Minister believe that the current number of practitioners per team, that's physicians and other practitioners like NPs, that it is an appropriate number of practitioners per team to be able to serve this many patients, or is the authority striving for a different number of practitioners per team? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, whether I believe it is or I don't believe it is, I think what the Member -- what I would like to provide so that the Members of this House and the Member for Yellowknife North wants, I think is getting to the bottom is are these -- you know, these -- like, these teams going to be what needs to happen. We don't know right now. So what is happening is the framework is currently being developed to provide clear direction and performance benchmarks for this initiative. And these are going to be completed by 2025 but the -- in the -- what was there, you know, we were getting concerns from inside within the physicians. The ten teams, we did not enough people to meet those teams so creating smaller teams, we're able to fill all the needs in those teams, and now we'll monitor to see whether or not that's going to meet capacity for the Northwest Territories.

And I'd like to add, you know, on top of all the move and everything into the new facility and the phone issues, you know, that has also put -- it's not necessarily -- like, the teams are not working. It's people in the public are having access issues to try and make appointments. And that, you know, comes down to frustration from the residents of the Northwest Territories, and we are trying to rectify those issues. So I just want to make -- put that on the record that it's not all about downsizing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Minister aware of any studies or plans that have been prepared in the past that would give us an answer to the question of how many is the right number of practitioners for a certain number of patients per team? Do we have any studies that would direct us towards what is the appropriate number of patients per team? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think we can all say that we have studies and research and reviews on many different areas within the health care system. Specifically to primary care, there are -- there are -- you know, there are different things that have been done. Some of those things aren't -- they don't necessarily meet the primary care reform needs. Some of -- some past -- you know, if there's reports out there, they might take pieces of them that meet the need of primary care reform. But we are moving away from the way that we used to provide services in the Northwest Territories. So what I can say is at this moment with primary care reform, we're using all of the past tools and any kind of reports or anything to try and make primary care reform, like, the best that we can for the residents of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So finally, why were our primary care physicians not consulted or notified that the health authority would be sending out this letter and making this commitment to residents at this time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are -- you know, there's the CEO, the territorial medical director. There is a vacancy that's being covered. How there are -- members of physicians that sit on the primary care reform team. So how and who wasn't informed, I can't -- like, I can't specify how that communication went to the physicians and how the information was released or how it was reported to them that it was going to be released at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.