Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.
So it's hard to believe that in this day and age we can't seem to create either an online system or even a phone system that works to book a primary care appointment in Yellowknife. So the first question is what is being done to ensure that people in Yellowknife can actually book a primary care appointment in a timely way for issues that cannot wait several weeks or several months to be addressed but may not qualify as an emergency that would necessitate an emergency room visit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Health and Social Services.
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 process for filling cancellations to ensure no appointment slots are lost. And together, these initiatives enhance efficiency and ensure patients can ensure appointments more easily. I do know that as I have briefings with the NTHSSA, and I do question how is the improvements happening within -- especially within the Liwegoati and the primary care clinic, and they are saying that the numbers are increasing and their frontline staff are being trained more to, you know, offer more appointments as -- when people call in, in general, they used to be, I would like to book a doctor's appointment, and now they're doing more -- when they are able to get through, they are able to triage them and to say, like, we can't get you into a physician on your team this time, but we can get you into this health care provider or this health care provider. And that would speed up the process, which those health care providers work as a team, they can also consult with a physician on the patient's behalf. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I was a little bit unclear whether the Minister was talking about improvements to come or improvements already in place. But the example of creating a system of same-day bookings where if a physician or locum knows they have an opening the next day that they can contact people, for example, on a waiting list or a cancellation list and fill those slots on the same day, is that mechanism currently in place, or is it being worked on? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is waitlists, and within the callback or the online, it is active right now. And from my understanding, any time that there is a gap or an opening or a physician or any of the health providers, it is filled with those lists that they have currently. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So private clinics, private walk-in clinics in the NWT not only have systems where you can check your lab results online, which sometimes means you can avoid the need to book a follow-up appointment, but they have online systems for booking appointments. So it's unclear what's preventing the public primary care system from using an online system. Is this being explored or developed, or what are the barriers here? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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 clinics typically manage bookings for a single provider or a small team. And before introducing any new technology, it's important to fully understand the underlying challenges to ensure the solutions.
And so one of the things that we are trying to look towards is the current system that we book appointments in has no -- we cannot do anything more with it, and that's why the new system that we're looking to move towards will have all of those pieces incorporated; however, it is challenging in a smaller jurisdiction to try to incorporate that, you know, with everything and with all of our technology being, like, there's multiple different systems that also need to be fed into that one system, and not all of them are compatible. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
