Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to use this short opportunity to ask a question of the Minister of health. We had a brief conversation over lunch hour with respect to medical travel, and it got me to thinking during that time, an hour or so ago, what is the Minister doing to open up for public dialogue and suggestions on repairing problems and challenges with medical travel? Could she open up a form or discussion board or something that they can receive direct input on stories, individuals. So that question is for the Minister of health.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. Some of the things that we're working on with -- yes, okay, because I was, like, lost. I thought we were moving on, and I didn't know you guys went back.
Thank you. Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Back to the question. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm always happy to repeat the best question ever.
Mr. Speaker, I said I had a brief conversation with the Minister over lunch hour regarding medical travel, and it got me to thinking during that time a couple hours ago which is, is there a way the department can set up some type of form or way to receive information on challenges individuals have been receiving through -- or going through medical travel in a way that we can help repair or fill some gaps on the system sort of like a -- I don't know how you do it, a flow system in but it's not meant to be a dialogue. Anyway, the point being is then we need to hear direct stories from people about ways of their -- challenges they're facing and ways maybe we can help deal with some of those challenges. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have the Office of Client Experience as the NTHSSA is the administrator that does the medical travel, and so I've had these conversations with the CEO and the public administrator and they really encourage people, when they're having issues, to make sure that they're raising them with the Office of Client Experience as well. Anything that comes through my office is tracked, and we do have a long list of the things that -- and those are the things that we are working on. However, that would be my first area that I would suggest, because all of the Office of Client Experience complaints and process. And I can see if there's a way that we can kind of streamline a medical travel route through that if that works, and I can get back to the Member on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ever so briefly, I was on the City of Yellowknife website about snow removal, and they had a bunch of Q and A simple questions as why you don't do -- or why this isn't being done and you click it, and it explained why this wasn't being done. Mr. Speaker, there could be a great chance for medical travel to help communicate some of the things. As I'm highlighting, I'm only going to briefly highlight one example, plane alignments with schedules. So in other words, that question could be is why aren't they aligned or better, you could have we're working on this, this is the progress, those type of things. That way people feel their government's listening. So, Mr. Speaker, is something like that feasible, or could you recognize the opportunity there within? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now online we do have the where we are with the medical travel. There's a portal online -- I can share it with the Members again -- on the progress that we're working on. But what I can do is also highlight that there is going to be a new manual, whether it's -- and if we can break some things down to our most common FAQs, that, you know, that could or -- and a general email box that people could probably send in some things. I can bring those back to my department to see how that can be done. I do believe that some of the work that will be coming out -- and I shared this with the Member -- is, you know, is we've all heard is the service standards. And so that has been a directive that I have given to the department to have a response and an implementation plan on how they're going to do service standards within, making sure patients have their travel at a certain time before so that they can actually -- if they don't have an escort or something like that, they have a period of time that they can -- they actually have time when they're not getting on the plane to figure out why they don't have an escort. So there are different things but I'll take those back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can keep this one quite short: We need a platform so people with see the questions are being heard. Because not everything needs to be an Assembly question and problems solved here. Everything could -- you know, so people need to know these questions are being worked on, and that's the platform I'm suggesting. Does the Minister, again, see the opportunity here to in a more transparent way communicate the struggles the department sees, hears, and is working towards solutions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will take that back to my department, and I can -- I see it as a good idea. I see it as I know that we do have a lot of -- you know, communication is one of the things that I'm always trying to see how we could do better. And so I will take that back and see what we can, and I can even let the Member know where we'll go with that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
