Tom Beaulieu

Mr. Speaker, in Saskatchewan they’re trying to attract doctors to communities with less than 10,000 people. All of our communities, with the exception of Yellowknife, have less than 10,000 people. Again, our game is a little bit different but, of course, as we meet at the federal/provincial/territorial meetings, I would talk to the executive deputy minister and see if there would be some value in us having a discussion with a jurisdiction such as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, which also have remote communities, and Alberta to see if there is maybe something that can be gained from having the...

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Recently we had transferred the territorial physician recruitment, developed a Territorial Physician Recruitment Strategy that’s developed to improve recruitment to the Territories. We hadn’t contemplated luring doctors with cash, but rather improving the system and how we attract them back to the Territories. We have a fairly healthy compensation package for doctors that wish to work in the Territories and we are seeing some success. Recently, since we’ve developed this recruitment strategy, we have some doctors in Inuvik, Fort Smith and now the first one in Hay River...

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. I’m hoping that this was one of the areas that the Minister’s Forum on Addictions and Community Wellness would be looking at. I know that infrastructure is available and exists within existing infrastructure that is designed for wellness and treatment. I’m hoping that it’s looked at, but I don’t have an indication now that they have looked at that. Not because they haven’t, but because they just haven’t advised me that they have. Initially when we rolled out our wellness plan, I don’t believe there was money allocated to work within that wellness camp.

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...