Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority has been able to fund these positions with internal funds at this point but that they are looking for a longer term solution to continue funding the medical social workers. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do have a highlevel service dashboard that is available online, but it doesn't drill into the level that the Member is asking for. And so I will follow up with her to give her specific times for Inuvik, Stanton, and Fort Smith. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're not looking at making that change.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact, the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority is now actively recruiting two medical social workers who will support community outreach efforts and coordinate clinical care. So I don't know where that process is at, but the money has been identified; the ad has been posted, and we it usually takes somewhere up to 12 weeks to fill a position. So I hope that before we leave here at the end of March, you will I will be able to announce to you that the medical social workers are in place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank the MLA for the engagement he has with this issue in his community. I'm very pleased that he gets calls directly and can provide the information that he has and I'm providing. So there are all frontline registered nurses are qualified to administer and support medical detox under the direction of a physician, and that applies to opioids and alcohol. So the starting point is to go to the health centre and to be assessed for the substance that the person wants to detox from, and the process then rolls from there. There are always registered...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by the Member for Kam Lake on October 27, 2022, regarding Infertility Treatment.

To answer the Member’s question as to who decides what conditions are covered as a medically necessary insured health service, it is not unfortunately a simple answer.

There are multiple factors that come together to determine what is deemed a medically necessary insured service. While the Canada Health Act sets out the principles of its Medicare system, specifically the principles of universality, portability and accessibility, it is the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, these are Hay River Health and Social Services Authority positions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have information on what the department has for an ask. I haven't seen that yet. But it's very unusual for us to offer a position like that for only one year. It's also very difficult to recruit people for a job that's only for one year. So my expectation is that the department is looking at other ways to fund this on a permanent basis. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are aware that the practice of pharmacy has expanded since our Pharmacy Act had a last substantial overhaul and that the pharmacists are able to deliver a greater scope of practice than they have historically and that that includes administering specific medications as well as prescribing them, which would be a huge help as things stand now. So we are planning to draft regulations to bring pharmacists into the Health and Social Services Professions Act and to do that work early in the life of the next Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Member knows, NTHSSA and the department do work collaboratively with ECE in this area. And in the next fiscal year, the department is preparing for a review specifically of the speech language pathology services to understand the current service gaps and identify opportunities to improve services. And that work will include NTHSSA, Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, the Tlicho Community Services Agency, and ECE. Thank you.