Lesa Semmler

Mr. Speaker, ensuring that every person in the Northwest Territories has access to safe, reliable, and equitable health care is not just a priority for me and a goal of our health and social services system, it is a promise we are working every day to uphold. Today, I am honoured to share an update on an initiative that represents a turning point for health care in the North; work happening in the Deh Cho region that is helping us understand, in a deeply human way, what care truly looks and feels like for residents in our smallest communities.

Mr. Speaker, this initiative is part of our broader...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in the first response, the NTHSSA has engaged with the staff within the Deh Cho region, and this piece of it is now following the journey of the patients as I mentioned in my Minister's statement. Part of that is going to be seeing the successes through that there are the -- the things that we are doing good, so we don't disturb those things and then the gaps. And part of that will be the analysis afterwards is how do we work with our health professionals and our residents in the region to help fill those gaps. And it has to be driven. And...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as NTHSSA is -- you know, I can bring that back to the health authority. The contract is with the health authority, and the health authority is the one that will be negotiating with them on the new contract, and I'm sure that those discussions are happening in regards to standards and best practices. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time I can say that the -- I don't have the exact details, but I will get back to the Member. But what I will say is that the extended health -- or the extended care moved over to the Liwego'ati from the old Stanton -- from the Stanton hospital, the new Stanton hospital back to the old Stanton hospital, and then we just most recently opened up one house of the long-term care beds, and it is kind of a phased approach over the two floors there, so. But I can commit to getting the numbers of how many beds we have available right now and how many are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize a constituent of mine, Lorraine Greenland. Thank you for being here today. And as well as Georgie and Sonny and Grace, Annie. It's just nice to have people in the audience. And I see Kurt and Todd there too, so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the scope of the pharmacists, they are as a working group working with the pharmacists that is help -- that has helped to get to this point. Right now, with the What We Heard report, that is where we are to do that. Like, all I can say is this is an important piece for the Northwest Territories. It is an important piece for us to free up, you know, some of our clinic space that we continuously hear about so that pharmacists can do their expanded scope as they do in many other jurisdictions. And as I mentioned, I will get back to the Member on the timeline for this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What I will do is I will have my staff talk to the information protection of privacy, and we will get back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is more complex, and so in order for to get the okay, we have to go through the -- I think it's information systems. And so that is a critical part of this. The other piece is it's not connected to our EMR, and that is the system that they use for appointments in our EMR system, and they will not talk, and therefore it will duplicate work making more work for the frontline staff if there were more processes. We are looking at options in the interim; however, you know, we are just looking to replace our EMR. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the date, I don't have that information, so I'll get back to the Member for the date that that was set.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, I just want to first of all say that child and family services is there to support families and children. So the way that we are trying to change the way that we're looked at is that if you've exhausted all services in the Northwest Territories as a family, whether it's financial, you know, if there's issues within the home, if you're a family that, you know, is having a hard time accessing care, then there is a voluntary service area where you can work with the child and family service team that can support you. So gone are the days where we are going...