Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of health.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister has previously replied to a written question that the health services administration office will address patient files through a process called prior approval when the patient's cause of infertility is not readily known. This seems like a good touch point to capture voluntary data from residents who are struggling to conceive. So my question is can the Minister investigate that touch point, and any others that may make sense to her and her department, as a place to start collecting voluntary resident data to identify -- to start to identify the need -- the extent of the need -- pardon, for fertility supports in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time health and social services does not explicitly track that data, however, we are anticipating -- you know, and I think this is one of the areas that we struggle with within our system is that we're not able to pull that data, and we're hoping that -- well, you know, with the new electronic health record, that is an item that's been designated that needs to happen, is to be able to extract data from the electronic health medical records. So until that happens, then we'll be able to better track different types of data within our health system. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. It gives me all the more reason to ask for questions about electronic health records.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of health tell me if her department is studying the Yukon's approach to medical travel supports for NWT residents seeking fertility treatment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time we are not contemplating that. The reason what we're doing right now is we are -- we are doing a system review of a lot of our health services and our insured services, our non-insured services that we are providing through the health sustainability unit, and so we need to complete that task before we decide to -- you know, to implement new services. Right now, the health and social services every year has a deficit and so trying to review and implement something new at this time is not something that we are looking at. However, we do provide medical travel. And I think I've mentioned this before, that we do provide the medical travel when it covers the insured services, like the diagnostics that need to happen that may be causing the infertility. And if there's insured services, if there's procedures that they may have that might be caused by this; however, it doesn't cover the treatments themselves at this time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Great Slave.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, yeah, I recognize going down the road of trying to capture all fertility interventions as insured services is not one that the health Minister is willing to do at this juncture. So I guess I am just asking her to be bold and in her process can she identify the potential costs for providing medical travel for a non-insured service and if that is, indeed, something that she will be looking at. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, and I appreciate the questions on these, and I do have a running list of things that I have that I would really like to look into and to add to our system; however, the things that we are currently providing we do not even -- in some of the areas that we're providing them, we do not have the right amount of funding to do those programs as it is. And I know that this is important to many residents in the Northwest Territories and, like I said, I have a list of things that I would like to be able to bring forward; however, at this time, you know, all I can commit to is adding this to that list and making sure that it's on that list and that the department is aware that as we finish the health sustainability work and we look at how we're funding our programs and services and what programs and services that are important to the residents of the Northwest Territories that we can take a look at, you know, the other lists that the residents need. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.
