Lesa Semmler

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, as this is brought up in the House, I will bring this back to NTHSSA and follow up as to how things are going in the lab and the walk-in clinic there, and if there's improvements that -- what recommendations that -- you know, what do they -- you know, to be able to carry out some of these things. However, at this time, there's not many things that I can say on the floor of this House, that I'd have to go back to NTHSSA as that falls under their authority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, you know, I think there was some timing from NTHSSA and myself. I stood in this House and did a statement on systemic -- with cultural and safety and anti-racism in this House, and then within the day, they were releasing this report right at the end of our session. So we weren't able to kind of combine the two. However, now we are first day back, and I followed up with the NTHSSA and they have drafted the implementation plan. They've created that, and this plan is being reviewed by their executive. And once that is done, I can share an update with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while private clinics in Yellowknife may use online booking, the implementing a similar system in the public care system is significantly more complex. The public system is subject to stricter regulations, including procurement rules, enhanced privacy, security requirements that do not apply to private clinics. In addition to that, the booking system must be able to coordinate appointments across multiple provider types, such as physicians, nurse practitioners, specialists, integrate with large complex health information system in contrast with private...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this has been an ongoing discussion, I have been in contact with -- especially here in Yellowknife as an ongoing basis as to how improvements are being put into place and what can be put into place. I know that we have -- you know, people can call in. To improve appointment accessibility, several other measures have been used. These include same-day access to provide appointments. There's online call-back system to streamline booking requests. And from my understanding, people who can -- they are getting callbacks right away in a timely manner. An active...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the solution is that the demand is higher, so we are working through the business process that would look at the right amount of staff for the right amount of tests that we have to decrease the amount of tests that we have to send out. We need more lab technicians. We need more lab, you know, assistants. We need different hours. So what has happened -- and just to be more clear -- is the service providing downtown clinic is the same staffing that has always been the allocation for the Stanton lab. So now they're just kind of spread out in two different...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point, there is no capacity to remove the responsibility from the CHN; however, you know, the CHN is still the most responsible and only provider able to handle this service within the current model of our -- the community model of care. But there are many different things that are going on right now, including primary care reform, Deh Cho's journey mapping, the work on small community model of care, which I spoke about in my statement today. We are improving continuity of core services delivering by both how other professions, like we just said...

Mr. Speaker, ensuring residents across the Northwest Territories continue to have access to health care that is safe, reliable and equitable is a top priority for me, and for this government, and for the Northwest Territories health and social services system. Today, I am pleased to share an update about the work we are doing within that system to improve care in small community health centres and health cabins.

Just like every jurisdiction in Canada, our healthcare system is strained by staffing shortages. As a country, we simply are not graduating enough doctors, nurses, and allied...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, and I think this is a -- this is why we're looking at how can we implement paramedics into the small communities because currently right now, you know, they work in larger regional centres and not necessarily -- what has happened is over the summer months, we do contract paramedics that are on standby to be deployed to the health centres if needed, an evacuation in a community. And so since we have them -- and usually summertime is when we have our reduced services -- they've been in the clinics doing triaging and helping the CHN, working alongside the CHN...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have a lot of health professionals that have worked in our healthcare system, and we are slowly regulating those health professionals. We are looking, as for instance, LPNs most currently were regulated under the nursing -- I think it's the CANN legislation that we passed last year. There is the Health Professions Act that we are, you know, working on to bring to the floor, and there are a number of different aspects under that that we are going to be bringing forward regulations under. We are currently trying to bring forward all of the staff that are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the Member, you know, and I will take him up on if he has any other recommendations, feel free to stop at my office and give me that list of recommendations. I'll bring them over to NTHSSA and see what they can do about that.

As for the lab recs that are -- any lab tests that cannot be done within the house, like there is a multiple types of tests that we do in-house at Stanton, and there are some that we -- they just don't have the capacity to continue to do all of those samples. They send them to Alberta through the contract that we have through the...