Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s good timing today, because I was speaking on this today in regard to doctor shortages in my riding of Nunakput in the Beaufort-Delta.
To serve my people of Nunakput, doctor shortages need to really be looked at with the Minister and her staff, to try to utilize the doctors out of Yellowknife to come up north for short stints, and to assist the nursing staff in the smaller communities — the locum nurses who come into the community who don’t really know the community people. They’re only there for two or three weeks at a time, and there’s high turnover.
I can see where the turnover is coming from. In my riding the nursing station in our units has four apartments above the health centre. I went on a tour a couple of times. The furniture, kitchen utensils, no TV, blankets and stuff — I could see why they want to leave.
The biggest concern for me in health is my elders in my communities not seeing doctors for as long as six months. Today I got a call from Ulukhaktok, and still no doctor.
Our elders won’t complain about pain or the way they’re feeling until a family member tells them they have to come to the health centre. The next thing you know, the elder is being medevaced out of the community and brought into a larger centre. This has to be looked at. It’s a real serious situation I have in my riding with the doctor shortages.
My colleague Mr. Beaulieu brought up a lot of my concerns with Health and Social Services. He touched on that for me.
The last one I’d really like to speak on…. I’d like to thank Dr. De Clerc and his staff up in Inuvik in the Beaufort-Delta for providing the service for the Beaufort-Delta area, and also the staff at Stanton Hospital. I used the emergency last week, and they’re really good at what they do. So I commend them and all the hard work they’re doing for both Stanton Territorial Hospital and the Inuvik Regional, and all the good work they’re doing with all their staff.
Again, the Minister knows the issues I have with the doctor shortages and the problems I have in my riding.