Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I know -- I spy some healthcare workers in the gallery, so I thought I'd ask some health care questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
Will the Minister of Health and Social Services give her guarantee to this House that Stanton Hospital's emergency department will have an emergency physician physically present for all times this summer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, within the -- with the Member's question, what I can say, as the schedule as developed, we have been scheduling physicians, emergency room physicians. Beyond what the development of the schedule is, I would have to get back to the Member as the schedule is developed. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. That didn't sound like a guarantee and perhaps we could see the schedule at some point, but that might be breaching operational concerns. But I will ask this: If we can't get a guarantee, what is the Minister's answer to a patient who arrives at Stanton ER for emergency treatment, there's no emergency physician, what does the Minister want them to do to get emergency care? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when any Northwest Territories resident arrives to any health facility, they are triaged. And especially in the emergency, there is the triage, the CTAST that every patient is triaged. And so based on their -- what their complaints are and what they're coming in for, then that is what designates their priority. If like their symptoms or something changed while they're waiting to -- they're encouraged to go back to the registrar and have a nurse reassess them. There are -- you know, and I think the thing what I would like to say is that the staff that are working in emergency, you know -- and I hear what the Members are saying and I'm not -- you know, I'm not trying to sugarcoat it. They're working hard. And, yes, there's a lot of things going on. There's medevacs coming in. There's physicians on the phone with small communities while there's people sitting in the waiting rooms, you know, the struggles that we've heard of accessing appointments and things like that, those are all on the -- like, those are things that they're currently, you know, working with. You know, I've had conversations with the PA just as recent as today on an update on the primary care clinic. So there are ongoing things that they're continuously trying to improve in the capital to improve the lives of the residents here as well as outside of Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm glad to hear that we're talking about the whole territory, not pitting regions against each other. To that end, we know that the Inuvik hospital often suffers similar shortages and staff. Can the Minister guarantee to this House that labour and delivery services at the Inuvik hospital will remain open over the summer, preventing moms and their families from travelling to Yellowknife, or farther, to have their babies? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this was one of the reasons why, you know, we have an anesthetist, we have physicians that have -- we have to have the backup for cesarean sections to be able to provide services for labour and delivery and, you know, our physicians also need to go on vacation. So with the locum, the new locum rates, we're hoping that we can encourage locum and aesthetics and, you know, and GPs to come up to help with our physicians so that they can take the time off that they need as well as the nurses. As long as I've been in Inuvik, the nurses that do provide the obstetrics are our local core -- the ones that live there, they have their families there, and they need their time off too. So we will work by using any means to be able to keep that services open; however, we need to ensure that we have the staff there to do it safely. So what I'm committing to is to making sure that we are providing safe obstetric services, you know, and if it becomes where we do not have a service, then, you know, we will have to transition to Yellowknife. Right now, I haven't had that so hopefully that doesn't change over the summer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
