Thank you. I’ll accept that. On the

positions that were deleted, could you highlight exactly what positions they were? If I understand it, the Aboriginal Wellness came in and two new dialysis positions. Were there any losses in this calculation, just for the official record? I was having trouble hearing that.

Mr. Chairman, the increases to

Stanton are the registered nurse for Northern Women’s Health and two positions for dialysis registered nurses. So that’s three. There is a typographical change, a correction of the error from last year, on three positions, so it’s not real positions per se. The only reduction at Stanton Territorial Health Authority is a Telehealth position.

On that Telehealth position, what

analysis was done on that?

It’s exactly the same analysis as

previously noted. If you look at the program we have there, currently the Telehealth program has a coordinator in headquarters. Then there were a regional position in the Inuvik health authority, one in the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority and one at the Stanton Territorial Health Authority.

We had to look at that program and see whether it was possible to deliver the program with fewer resources. The technology has improved a lot in that regard. The machines and equipment we have from the funding from Canada Infoway have enabled us to deliver those services much more cheaply.

The decision was made that the Stanton position and the Yellowknife position could be eliminated but we could still do the programming in a different way. I think it should also be noted that there are lots of communities in the Northwest Territories without a coordinator for Telehealth. But they do still turn on the machines, and they do still participate in the Telehealth program.

So to answer the question — sorry for being long-winded — looking at the job description, duties, the make-up of resources within that program and how we could still deliver the program were the criteria that were used.

Mr. Chairman, I’m just trying to get a

sense of all of this. We have a Telehealth coordinator in headquarters, and that makes sense to me. As to whether we need a coordinator or not,

I’m not in a position to say yes or no. But then we lose the Telehealth person at Stanton. I’m just trying to follow the format here. That’s not seen as a position that needs to be kept, but the duties could be spread out.

Again, I’m not necessarily speaking for or against the reduction. But then we lose one in Inuvik and it gets reinstated because the program can’t run without that person, but then in the communities it runs fine without a Telehealth coordinator. I’m just trying to understand the principles of how we can save one and not the other. I’m just trying to make sense of this. Is Telehealth training a practicality of training to all nurses? Or is it reasonable for administrative staff to do that? Or are the patients scanning themselves? I’m just trying to get a sense of why it works well in one area where you need a coordinator of some sort, or an operator in that area, but you don’t in other areas. Someone says you don’t need one at Stanton. That seems to be the evaluation. I’m trying to get a sense of how this was justified and, furthermore, if I held it up how it would make sense. If the Minister could explain that.

Mr. Cummings.

Thank you, Mr.

Cummings. Any further questions on page 6-10? Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Although

I had asked this question, I would just like ultimate certainty.

I have a constituent who uses the services at the dialysis unit, and it's my understanding that that position has been left vacant or unfilled or other — and I’ll leave “other” pretty vague — and I just want to make sure it is fully staffed at this time. What is the exact staff of that whole unit again, just to make sure it’s on record?

Mr. Chairman, I could give him

that assurance. Anybody who needs that dialysis service is being, and will be, provided with it at Stanton.

There is another area I forgot to

mention, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring it up. I’ve heard from a number of nurses — and it’s been heard by a number of Members throughout this Assembly, and I’m sure even the Minister must have heard this from time to time.... The nursing staff have been described as over-prescribed in work and undersubscribed in relief. Does the Minister — speaking of Stanton specifically — have a grip on the actual numbers of staffing of nurses there, and how many? Is there a difference between how many we have staffed and how many we have in the sense of funded/unfunded positions? Furthermore, is it grouped around how many are required to operate the hospital properly and safely?

There’s lots of information that’s

required there. The information I have is that the vacancy rate at Stanton for nurses has been decreasing over the years. I could give him specific information on that.

The overtime hours there.... I think I saw the stats where it’s a little bit less than the national figure, and I could provide the Members with that. Over the years the casual nurses float pool has increased NWT-wide, making it possible for us to use fewer agency nurses.

I could advise the Member that right now at Stanton we do have the stand-by, the float pool nurses, of nine. There has been a suggestion made that perhaps we should look at increasing that to 15. Stanton is actively looking at that option, to see what the optimal level of float pool nurses are, taking into consideration the qualifications required. Because, from my understanding, the float pool nurses need to have intense two-year training to make sure they’re at least trained to work in three

or four areas: ICU, surgery, psychiatry, pediatrics, medicine, obstetrics and such. Obviously, these are not for all the nurses, so we need to get a pool of nurses to be trained for that. At the same time, we need to do a cost-benefit analysis to see what the optimal level of those numbers is. What I want to tell the Member is that I’d be happy to get him all the information on those stats I’ve mentioned already.

There’s no question that the human resource issues at the hospital have been under stress or under a little bit of pressure. I think I’m working toward getting some of the more clear information on that, an action plan on that. Part of the work the public administrator is doing there with the management of Stanton is part of that exercise. Finishing the human resource plan is part of that exercise, and it’s one on which I am confident I could have a full and more clear package of information to go forward to the Standing Committee on Social Programs and other interested Members to address that situation.

Although I’m not on the clock, I

thank you for giving me the chance to say, Yes, I’ll take that information. I certainly would hope that every other Member on this side of the House would receive the offer of that package of information the Minister had offered.

Thank you,

Mr. Hawkins. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to,

unfortunately, review the Telehealth positions. I got confused with the numbers, and where they are, how many they are, and how many we’re going to be left with. I thought I heard that there currently or were four Telehealth coordinator positions and that the budget is going to leave us with one in Inuvik. If I could get that confirmed, please.

Thank you,

Ms. Bisaro. Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The

headquarters person in Yellowknife…. We have one in headquarters, one in Inuvik, one in Yellowknife Health Authority, one at Stanton. We are proposing to eliminate the positions at Stanton and the Yellowknife Health Authority.

Mr. Cummings.

Thank you. That’s great. That’s good.

We’re on page 6-10,

Department of Health and Social Services, information item, Active Positions – Health and Social Services Authorities. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman. In

Mr. Hawkins’ questions to the Minister I don’t know if she answered as to how many unfunded positions we have across the health authorities. I’d be interested to know that, especially at Stanton.

Thank you,

Mr. Ramsay. Minister Lee.