Glen Abernethy
Statements in Debates
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled "2019-20 Health and Social Services Authority Budgets"; and "Impacts of the NWT on the Land Collaborative & Land-Based Programming." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I've already directed the department to reach out to youth and partners like Education, Culture and Employment to figure out how best to get that information, and this is consistent with what we heard from youth when we held Back to the Trail, which helped our Youth Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan, but another thing that I've learned from talking to young people is they don't want old people like me telling them how to use technology or how to get that information. They want to tell us how they want to access that information. So I think, in addition to working with our partners at...
We are talking about a new model, and in many of these primary healthcare teams where we've seen, it does involve different types of staff working in different relationships. It doesn't necessarily mean we need to get rid of staff. It doesn't necessarily mean we need to add staff, but it does mean we need to change how they operate and work together and the structure that they provide services in. It could result in some job description changes. Those always have a potential of having some impact on employees, but we have proven that we are quite good at working with our employees to recruit...
Yes, absolutely. As part of our Cultural Safety Action Plan, the territorial health authority and health system have recently embarked on work to undertake a reform of our primary healthcare services across the Northwest Territories. This work is being led by the territorial authority and the department, with pilot projects happening in the Yellowknife, Fort Smith, Deh Cho, and Tlicho regions.
Just as an example, Mr. Speaker, two of these projects in this reform effort focus on the implementation of integrated care teams. The goal of this team approach is to provide safe, high-quality care that...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today marks a major milestone for healthcare delivery in the Northwest Territories. On May 26, 2019, we began accepting patients at the new Stanton Territorial Hospital, and we implemented a detailed patient move plan to bring patients from the old Stanton hospital to our brand new facility.
I am pleased to report that our patient transfer was successful and that the new Stanton Territorial Hospital is now providing health services and care to residents. Our team successfully transferred 55 patients at approximately three-minute intervals over three hours. These...
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Northwest Territories Community Counselling Program, Client Satisfaction Report 2018." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
When I stood up, I actually knew the answer to that question, and now, I've completely blanked. I know that we're trying to do the family and community caregivers across a wide-range of communities, and small communities, regional centres, but I have completely blanked. I will commit to getting the Member that information.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to start off this conversation, I want to be clear that our priority is to help keep seniors in their homes first, their communities, their regions, and then, if they do require high levels of care due to different degrees of acuity, obviously they would need to be going to a long-term care facility. Long-term care facilities are those level four, five facilities where individuals' needs are significant. They need a greater degree of care that can be safely provided in a community. We built long-term care facilities where we also have physician positions located.
Ha...
Nuka is a model that is very similar to what we are moving toward here, and we are certainly learning a lot from them, but it will be a made-in-the-North design. The primary healthcare reform is a system-wide initiative. Although our first six demonstration projects don't include Hay River, I want to be clear that Hay River Health and Social Services is participating in the planning and design process to ensure that they are a part of the effort from the very beginning. Although the pilot isn't happening in the community, they are definitely a part.
As we begin to implement integrated care...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I understand the frustration that the residents of Hay River have had. Obviously, we need to do better in Hay River than we have done.
The authority is actually currently developing a new formal recruitment strategy in order to help them find more physicians, hopefully on a permanent basis. A lot of work needs to be done. I think the Member did a great job of articulating some of the things that need to be done. Some of those things are the types of things that they are doing, but I will reach out to the authority and figure out where we are on some of those exact...