Tom Beaulieu

I had not had previous discussions with the Minister of Health from Saskatchewan on the press release. However, when there is anything that’s pertaining to health right across the country, we have individuals in our communications that would track it, pull out some information and eventually, as we sit down and go through various agenda items with the deputy minister as part of regular routine, we discuss what’s happening in other parts of the country in as far as health goes. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I haven’t specifically talked to other Ministers. We all have the different types of issues in recruiting doctors. There are doctor shortages everywhere. It’s just that our percentage of our population that don’t have immediate access to doctors is probably higher than most, maybe not as high as Nunavut but higher than most places. We develop various strategies. We have a website. We have bursaries. We have 22 medical students from NWT now out in school that we are tracking. Like I indicated, we offer a good compensation package. We also offer residency to any doctors that wish to...

The current system allows for the health authorities to request training, and the department works with the trainers and so on to train people on the Mental Health Act. But at the same time, the same statistics that we provided to the Member, there are many incidences across the territory that would require some special attention. I will take it back to the department to ensure that the staff is fully up to speed on the Mental Health Act right across our system. Thank you.

Patients that leave the health centre that are there voluntarily, regardless of what the problem may be, are not necessarily contravening the Health Act. However, there are patients that are there involuntarily and in that case the physician can fill out a form that will detain the patient for up to two weeks. During that two-week period, if the patient chooses to leave the hospital or the health centre on their own, then the physician can ask for a peace officer to return the patient. There’s also a provision within that system, in that form or that certificate, involuntary admission, to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the inpatient outpatient reciprocal billing rates that are approved with an Interprovincial Health Insurance Agreements Coordinating Committee so that the department's representative on committee presents a territorial inpatient rate for approval and this rate is calculated by the department based on actual prior year’s adjustments for inflation. So that’s how we do the recoveries of the actuals and to make sure that we get all of the recoveries, there are some adjustments made.

I don’t have the specific stats on how many patients may have been returned by a peace officer to the hospital, but there is a provision in there that if a person is there under the certificate of involuntary admission and they choose to leave the hospital, then the physician can have them returned by a peace officer, RCMP, whatever. But I don’t know how many times that has occurred over the past year or over the past history.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Currently, the system relies on a Community Health Management Information System. This is where all of the visits, whether they be mental health or other health visits, are recorded and then provided to the department and, actually, it’s manually entered at this time. This is one of the things that we are trying to address through the introduction of the electronic medical record. But at this time they are entered and, admittedly, we are quite a ways behind on entering all the data, but we are getting caught up in some of the regions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my constituency assistant, Beverly Catholique.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the case of where diabetes gets to a point where there is dialysis needed, as an example, we have a couple of options. They have dialysis in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith and I believe we have dialysis in Inuvik, although I don’t know that specifically off the top of my head. In addition to that there are people who have diabetes in small communities who cannot travel to these centres, like the requirement to have the dialysis three times a week. Sometimes the other option is to train members of their family to assist them right in their hometown. We have some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are working with the health and social services authorities right across the region. We are compiling some diabetes work which will be completed this month, or I suppose has been completed, and we’re trying to put the rest of the program together to expand out. We did the pilot projects in Norman Wells and the Yellowknife Health and Social Services, and Tlicho Community Services Agency in Behchoko, and the intention is to try to develop a diabetes program that can be applied right across the territory to all of the communities in the NWT. Thank you.