Sandy Lee

That would not be based on the regions or the facilities. It wouldn’t be because they’re being moved from out of Territories or something like that. I would think that’s a question of insured services versus uninsured services, something that we hear all the time. Hospital-to-hospital transportation, that would be considered insured services and that’s covered under Medicare, medical travel. Long-term care is not considered insured services, so for some residents those are not covered. How the authorities deal with that is often they try to look to see if they need to go anywhere for medical...

Mr. Speaker, for the Member’s information, Saskatchewan is not doing clinical trials. They are doing clinical research which is being done in a number of sites. They are being funded by the federal government too. Minister Aglukkaq announced that. The federal government and Saskatchewan and the Province of Newfoundland are not doing clinical trials. What they are doing is the Minister announced a funding to monitor those who are receiving this service overseas. There is no clinical trial being done right now, but we are all working with scientists in various jurisdictions in different clinical...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have a number on me as to how many people were processed through that, but I can tell the Member that anybody in the Territories who is being considered for a placement into a long-term care would have had to have gone through TAC. So I will get back to the Member on the exact number. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I will get back to the Member on the details of where that budget is being allocated. The Member should know that there is a lot of cost associated with having a CHN. It is a very important program, but it needs a partnership from the authorities and mentors and extra costs in supporting a student through the program. I will undertake to get back to the Member on the breakdown of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The program continues. We continue to support the program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I am not aware of that plan. If there were, I would let the Member know.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we have discussed on many different occasions in standing committee and in health information dialogue and in the health community, deficit is a common issue everywhere in Canada. Every jurisdiction is faced with rising health care costs, rising health care services, rising drug costs, equipment costs, labour costs and the demand of service. NWT is no exception.

Stanton Territorial Health Authority is a territorial body. Their deficit is not Stanton’s deficit per se, but it is a system deficit. Dr. Corkal, who is the medical director, and the CEO, Kay Louis, and the...

I’ll have to get the details, but I would venture to guess that actual service of that specialist that we would have to pay in wherever place that they go would be as high, if not higher, than the medical travel and related expenses. There is a formula for the services like neurologists and inter-jurisdictional billing and such. So we would be paying for that specialist in Edmonton or wherever, while at the same time we are paying for our in-house specialist.

Specialists are, as you know, quite, I don’t want to say expensive, but we pay a lot of money to have somebody like a neurologist. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the need to make this sort of process as smooth and seamless as possible for the patient. I am aware that one of the patients in Hay River we did approve the travel, but we did give notice that for next year she would have to travel to a neurologist in Yellowknife. Also, I will work with the department to make sure that we review the files and see that if there is going to be a change in specialists that they need to see, that we give them as much notice as possible. Thank you.

I would appreciate getting more information from the Member, perhaps, on the specific situation. It’s case by case and it’s depending on the person and what facility they are in. We pay for medical escorts, but we do not have a budget to pay for somebody to visit anybody in long-term care at any time. It’s a question that we get asked all the time, so I would need what facility they are in and what condition and under what circumstances they were asked to have support. If they’re indigent, if they’re on income security, sometimes we’ve covered those. Sometimes they’re covered under employer’s...