Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have more questions for the Minister of health with respect to the medical travel challenges, more particular to the escorts.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to give certainly her a softball question, and this is the very first one so we can get right down to the nitty-gritty. She's been hearing how our concerns are.
Mr. Speaker, can the Minister speak to this House to help everyone understand the barriers, the challenges of the medical escort policy, and the approval process. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Could I use 20 minutes? So the medical travel policy, because it's not an insured service, we don't get funding for this and so what we do is we support, through our medical travel office that we fund currently, is we manage insurances. So behind the scenes, we try to manage insurances.
So if you're a GNWT resident, then you go through medical travel, your form goes in, then necessary decisions are made based on can this service be provided in the Northwest Territories in your home community, in the regional centre, in the capital, and if not, in Edmonton and where, and then that gets approved. And then once that's approved by the -- through that process, then that goes to the insurances. So if it's GNWT, as I mentioned, it goes back to the benefits office. If it's NIHB, then we follow their travel policy. And then if you don't have any other insurances that somebody may have, if you don't have insurance, then it's based on your income. So if you're low income, then you would fall under our medical travel policy -- well, high income/low income base, and then if you are over the threshold for income, then you have to pay -- you know, you're on the cost for your own hotel. We pay the flight but we -- you know, and we reimburse you $50 a day and $18 for meals. If you're under the threshold, then you can -- we can approve you to stay in the boarding home in the -- if there's travel involved. So that's kind of -- hopefully I answered some of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate it. I was trying to get a context on the record here because the next questions are when my colleague for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh talks about families, including infants, being left in the cold -- I am not going to go through all the examples -- but the examples here really talk about the criteria for non-medical escorts such as breastfeeding infants, elderly people, people with language disabilities, etcetera, etcetera, Mr. Speaker. The question is why are these people still not -- you know, if they meet the qualification of the four-page policy -- and that's all it is, four pages -- why are we still getting phone calls repeatedly about them not getting the non-medical escort through this process? Because it should be pretty clear. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to speak to specifics on any -- you know, on what any MLA has brought to my office. But raising the concern is the medical travel policy is for scheduled appointments and many of the issues that come through my office are for escorts for the patient. So when the patient is medivaced from community A to community B, there is no escort policy because the escort is the medical escort. And so when the patient arrives, then it's based on the practitioner and then we can get based on if there's decision-making, you know, if the patient is intubated and can't make decisions for themselves, then that's what goes to an exception request and our medical advisor, who is a doctor, not me, not the Minister, that makes that decision that says, yes, this is adequate and we can approve this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my happenstance, she led right into the last question I was going to have, so I will take those circumstances as a blessing.
Mr. Speaker, in the medical travel policy -- and for those following along, on page 4 -- it says the attending physician basically can prescribe and recommend a non-medical escort to participate in the treatment program of the individual. Mr. Speaker, in short, why is a policy maker somewhere behind the scenes -- acknowledging these requests have to be pre-approved -- I am acknowledging that. But why is a policy maker behind the scenes rewriting doctors direction? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, the doctor is the one that has to sign the patient travel escort requirement. The requirement under the guidelines, they are to make sure that they -- when they order the escort that it falls within. It's their -- they're the ones who are supposed to order the escort based on the criteria in the medical travel for scheduled appointments. That medical travel policy that the MLA is referring to is for medical -- for scheduled medical, not air ambulance, not ground ambulance; it's for scheduled appointments. When somebody has a specialist appointment, then they're booked, then they -- if they meet that. If they don't meet any of those requirements and they have to put the fulfilled answer as to why that it would entail a non-medical escort and then that's what gets put in as an exception request and, you know, there's many different reasons that they do get approved and the ones that don't get approved. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
