Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe the residents of the NWT have a fundamental right to quality health care. I also believe we must continually upgrade and improve our equipment and information systems, so that our health care providers are equipped with the tools necessary to provide quality health care.
To that end, Mr. Speaker, it is imperative and absolutely vital that an electronic health record system be implemented in the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I believe our government's current use of health care resources does not directly correspond to the values of efficiency and accountability for the people we serve, the residents of the NWT.
Without an electronic health record system in place, Mr. Speaker, our health care system in the North is extremely vulnerable and the health of our residents is at great risk. Mr. Speaker, medical error is the eighth most likely cause of death for Canadians. It costs an estimated 10,000 lives per year. We can no longer, as a government, afford to ignore these pictures. Mr. Speaker, these figures beg the question of how many people have to die without an electronic health record system being implemented in the NWT. You cannot put a price on what saving even one life would mean. If we continue without an electronic health record system in the NWT, Mr. Speaker, there are increased risks to our residents from physicians being unable to access a patient's past medical history. Mr. Speaker, due to the absence of an electronic health records system and given our transient population in the NWT, it is currently impossible for a physician practicing anywhere in the North to access a patient's medical history if they were seen anywhere else previously in the NWT. In this day and age, that is unacceptable.
Mr. Speaker, in the recently released Romanow report on the state of health care in Canada, the electronic health record was a key recommendation. Mr. Speaker, our doctors cannot practice safe and comprehensive primary care without an electronic health record system being implemented. We need to provide our doctors with the tools that they require to do their job for the sake of all residents of the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
---Applause