Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for many years now we have been moving forward with the implementation of a single electronic medical record system here in the Northwest Territories. We are very close to having that done at a territorial level. All of the information, in, out, to, from, it all has to comply with our Health Information Act to make sure that patients' privacy is protected at all times, and we are monitoring on a regular basis to make sure that there are no breaches. When there are, we have mechanisms to make sure that people are notified appropriately and that their information...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in moving forward with the construction of this facility, the proponents will be responsible for a number of the functions on an ongoing basis within that hospital. That includes basically the maintenance of the building, which is sort of the HVAC systems, the building structure, elevators, sort of the structure of the building. They are also going to be taking on housekeeping, laundry and linen, security and surveillance, as well as catering. These are currently things that are provided by different contractors that are currently engaged with the existing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently at Stanton, it is around 582 employees, but we are constantly staffing, people are constantly retiring and going to other jobs, so it is always fluctuating, but it is hovering around 580. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize for all the detail, but there are times when the detail is important, so it's important for me to get that information out.

The bottom line is, if you look at the Fort Smith numbers, they are significantly lower than the Hay River numbers. If we went ahead and moved the small number of beds in Fort Smith, we would be reliving the same mistake we've made before, which is building facilities that are too small to gain real economies of scale, and it's going to cost us more money in the long run. Building 24-bed pods gives us the ability to get significant...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for the details on when the project is intended to be substantially complete, at which point we would begin our process of verifying that the equipment is appropriate for health needs and those types of things, I believe it is 2019. However, Mr. Elkin has the more specific detail, so I will go to him for that.

No, thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Member is right. When it comes to some of the program space and the technical requirements to meet things like code and program design and infection control, those are things that I think do need to be done by the experts who are aware of those codes and those standards that we have to apply on all health stations. When it comes to getting input into some of the components the Member is referring to, some of the cultural components and maybe some of the aesthetics of the building, we really do rely on the regional wellness councils to provide us with advice and...

Yes, all of them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, similar to questions that were raised yesterday, when it comes to long-term care facilities, those are level 3/4 facilities for individuals who are no longer to live independently and have medical issues that need to be addressed in a 24/7 facility. Given the model, we are not looking to develop those in smaller communities, but rather communities where we do have medical practitioner positions on site and where there is a greater degree of care available given the acuity of these patients. We absolutely without question support aging in place. We want to keep...

The intention is for that time period to be very short. Once we get -- say let's talk peds, as an example. We'll have the staff go in; they'll do some test runs in the area. They'll make sure everything's working, and they'll move of the stuff over. Once the first patient day happens, we will be moving over the rest of the material from the peds unit as quickly as possible. It could be a week, but we don't want to have an under-resourced peds unit at any given time. We do have to have some time, but those periods of time from first patient day to all the material in in each unit will be very...