Glen Abernethy

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a number of factors that we utilize when deciding whether to employ nurses throughout the Northwest Territories. The Integrated Service Delivery Model sets out standards for community health staff across the Northwest Territories. But as I indicated, when asked questions previously, it is under review and we are looking for ways to enhance the services in our small communities. RCMP is but one factor. It is not the deciding factor by any stretch of the imagination. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

We obviously take these types of situations very seriously and we are doing a number of things within the department and our authorities to control infections but also report on infections. One of the things that we have done is we have defined minimum competencies and skill sets for all practitioners within our system, and we review and modernize existing infection and control standards and standards for sterilization on a regular basis. We’ve also implemented a surveillance system of reportable infections and we’re working to develop, or we have developed and implemented reporting and...

There are a number of infections that are not reportable under the Public Health Act because hospitals are required to monitor these under their own set of regulations. However, as we get copies of lab results and other things, we’re able to determine where some of these exist.

With respect to a greater level of reporting on these particular infections, certainly I’d love to have some more discussion with the Member as well as committee to find out or to improve the system that we have in place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s an incredibly detailed question, but I will certainly get back to the department to see if we can figure out what that discrepancy has resulted from. Thank you.

We have a new NWT Infection Prevention and Control Manual that was released in 2012. It contains all the standards of practice required by health care facilities to prevent and control the spread of infectious disease. The manual has been distributed throughout the Northwest Territories. Health and social services authorities have a lead responsibility to implement and audit these standards within their facilities and client service settings, but we have sent that out to all authorities. Thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair. There are many reasons why a position might be declared inactive. By way of example, there was some structural… I’m talking about the previous page, but just to put some information and context. There were some positions in the directorate, there was a bit of a reorg in the directorate and one of the admin type positions was described, but it was described with slightly different functions but still administrative. It required a new job description and was awarded a new position number as a result. The position number that was there providing similar or like duties was...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and we will certainly provide that.

The strategy that the Member is talking about is an old strategy, and moving forward we are going to be coming forward with a new strategy. It’s going to be informed by the continuing care report that was released just a couple of days ago to Members. That’s going to help inform the direction we take. We will be coming forward with an Aging in Place Strategy. We’re hoping to have that done by March 31st of this year, so that we can share it with committee. That will help inform how we move forward to deal with the aging population, the...

Madam Chair, the chief clinical advisor is going to be working on this over the next year to look at different procedures that haven’t been covered, including things like bariatric surgery. That will be done over the next year and hopefully we’ll be in a position to have some discussions about what may or may not be added or included in the future.

At this point in time, there is no intention to include naturopathic doctors and the services they provide under insured services. I do have a meeting with the naturopathic doctors here in the near future, where we’ll have an opportunity to hear from...

I’ve committed to having the department look at this and we’ll get back to the Members with some additional detail.

Currently all of our authorities are running deficits and this is something that’s been ongoing for a couple of years. We believe by sharing and collaborating on things like procurement and physician services, IT/IS/IM, some financial aspects, we’ll be able to coordinate efforts across the territory and have a more responsive, streamlined approach. But at the end of the day, as I said two days ago now, our focus is on the care that the patients receive and we want to make sure that our patients have a seamless flow through the system. We’ve all heard people talking about how frustrated they...