Tom Beaulieu

The Member may know that our drugs are handled by Alberta Blue Cross. We have gone to them, looked at them and they’re a large organization that we deal with. They have made recommendations to the Department of Health and Social Services on how to improve our systems, recommendations that will go into the overall pharmaceutical strategy. I’m not sure if that work included a look on their initial recommendations. They looked at the best practices across the country. For sure, when we develop the pharmaceutical strategy, we are going to look at best practices across the country. Thank you.

We know that the general right direction is to try to reduce the amount of alcohol that’s being consumed across the territory in the communities. That is fairly general. We’re hoping that we’re not going to get 33 different types of recommendations or sets of recommendations from the communities. Firstly, we’re probably going to go into about 18 to 20 communities. Secondly, there are going to be four or five different groups. I guess, one, two, four different groups that are going to be travelling. They’re going to have a little different set of skills that they’re going to bring to the table...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is currently working on the development of a pharmaceutical strategy. It is not moving as quickly as we want. Included in that strategy is the management of pharmaceuticals.

As far as actual policy that the doctors use or any of the health authorities use to dispense or prescribe medicine or drugs to individuals, it should be a standard process right across from the Beaufort-Delta down to Fort Smith.

I think we can do that. Since 63 percent of the population of the Northwest Territories considers themselves to be overweight or are considered to be overweight, we couldn’t do everyone, so I would say that we would have to have some other indication that these individuals would be eligible should this ever become part of our system.

I guess there are various ways that a department can go about collecting information and the most recent information in the field of addictions, things do change. There are up and down issues and trends on addictions and so on.

The main thing that we want to focus in on is alcohol. This is an alcohol forum. There is no indication to me from the Department of Health and Social Services that we had reports specific to the state of alcohol in the communities. We felt that right now is a good time to go out there and gather that information and see what the people have to say about how they wish to...

I’m assuming that the Member is asking about the cost of me and my staff.

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Every patient that has had surgery has a plan, a care plan as they are discharged from the hospital. This could include medication, follow-up appointments, and also advising the patient to look out for certain warning signs, post-surgery warning signs, and if anything comes up, they are to report back to the clinic. I will just make sure that these post-surgery plans are thorough and that everyone has a clear understanding of this plan prior to leaving the hospital.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The clinical practice is to see the patient. If the patient has pain, then the practice is for the physician that is there – whether it be a nurse, nurse practitioner or doctor – to see the patient and examine the patient.

I will commit to providing the sources on advising people to get medical travel insurance. I will also commit to putting on the posters where they can get the medical travel insurance from.

If the business case is approved by the Financial Management Board, we’re hoping that the flexibility will be built into the funding by April 1st the following fiscal year, so April 1st during the 2013-2014 fiscal year is when we hope to have the flexibility built into the funding.