Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are again to the Minister of Health and Social Services. Mr. Speaker, on the weekend I was reminded by a Member of our community -- happens to be a senior -- and they were saying to me that how they wish they could book their health appointments online. They mentioned the last time they were uncomfortable standing up, getting there early and having to stand and wait at the door to squeeze in, and when they try to call, the fact is no one answers until after 8 o'clock and hence all the appointments are gone by then, Mr. Speaker, which they said begs the question why even have a phone number.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister give this House an update when this government will proceed with an online medical appointment booking system. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have brought this back to NTHSSA and they have not brought back the -- a timeline but however we have had many conversations on what -- versus buying a program that's going to need to meet our OCIO standards for health information versus -- and that's not going to connect into our booking -- our EMR -- or EHR right now. So I will follow up with where we're at and if there is further discussions or options on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am not a software engineer, but this appears, from my understanding and research, is it's simply just a software program issue, not a medical Act issue. Maybe it's an attitude issue. Maybe people don't want to do it this way. I don't know, Mr. Speaker. The question is really built around can the Minister make a decision in the House that this will be implemented before the end of this calendar year 2026 to give the public service something to work towards to. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as we all know in this House, any time GNWT wants to implement some kind of a computer technology, it's not as easy as just the Minister saying it on the floor of this House. It's going to take analysis. It's going to see if it meets our standards of keeping health information, you know. So if there is an easier route, then I will definitely commit to being able to seeing if we can have -- you know, that through the next business plan rounds to implement; however, at this point I can't commit to ensuring that it's there. I will commit to seeing that if there's an easier route to bring that through our business planning process. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know I am not the only person who's asked this question. I know my colleague from Range Lake has asked this question about where this software is. Did the Minister just say in some way -- and I will allow her to clarify -- is the public service saying no? Are they refusing to do it? Are they refusing to take directions? Can the Minister at the very least commit in this House that she'll have this so-called analysis produced before the end of the second quarter of this current year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I have tasked NTHSSA to do is to do the patient journey through the primary care clinics in Yellowknife as this is where this issue has come up on and on again. And as part of that process, they will begin this -- I believe the patient journey, they're putting their metrics together, and they'll start this on April 1st. The booking -- with that system, just like with the Deh Cho journey, many recommendations came out of that. And using that journey, then we were able to come up with some recommendations on where to implement different dollars, program changes, and things like that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of health. Ma'am,
Stop recording.
Ma'am, in the gallery; you can't take pictures.
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