Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is in regard to the area of health services, especially in communities. I think the mess you have to face, the dilemma you are having, is to not have the access to your health centre because it’s under reduced core services because there’s not enough nurses. Because of that, you can only phone in for emergency cases or call the Inuvik emergency department. Or the other suggestion is that they call Telehealth, Tele-care, in regard to that service.
I think that when people see letters posted in communities saying these are the only services they will allow because they won’t schedule any appointments or clinics due to the shortage of nurses, it does have an effect on the well-being of the communities. Yet one of the priorities of the government is to provide services to people. When you don’t have those services, I think you really appreciate whatever little services you do have. When people talk about amalgamating clinics and walk-in clinics and all these care facilities people are taking for granted, they’ve got to realize that there are people out there, especially in our communities, who aren’t getting the fundamental services that most people take for granted.
As a government, we have to do a better job and use locums or whatever else. At the end of the day, there are some parts of the Territories where they have a very high turnover rate by way of trying for
recruitment, retention. I know Ms.
Lee said in
McPherson the community has a pretty stable workplace where the head nurse has been there for three years. They are considering at some point moving on. But also through our community health nurse program, where we are training our own local nurses and they’re going back to the communities, that’s the goal we should be meeting.
But again, half an hour down the road, at Tsiigehtchic, they haven’t had a permanent nurse there for a number of years. They have a nurse who goes there every other Thursday, and that’s the service they get. Yet we have a very large aging population, especially in that small community. A lot of people have to fend for themselves by either going and finding their way to Inuvik.... Something’s got to be done to improve that service in the outlying community considering that the level of service is what we get in some cases — there is no service.
I think as a government, again, we’re spending some $27 million on health care centres in communities. We have to realize that sure, we have some challenges, but the fundamental bottom line is everyone should have some basic level of health care. When you don’t have any health care services by way of the doctor.... If the doctors are short in Inuvik, you ain’t gonna get a doctor’s visit to your community; they just can’t leave Inuvik. That’s the problem I see in the Inuvik region. This issue hasn’t got any better since the vision; if anything, it’s gotten worse. Every year the Inuvik health board has been running a deficit, year after year after year, and yet we continue to see fewer and fewer services to our communities. I’d like to know where all this money is going if there are no services in communities? Who is spending those dollars that were earmarked for community health care providers — nurses, alcohol and drug, mental health nurses, doctors and whatnot?
The bottom line to me, in this day and age, is that we have a situation where people have to deal with it or file lawsuits against the government by way of health care, or lawsuits against the regional health authorities because of the service we’re getting. It seems like it’s coming to the point where we’re out of talking; we have to basically have something change for the better so that those residents, at least, have some means of health care.
I know you talk about dementia centres and more clinics and everything else coming to smaller communities. But for us, that’s dreaming in technicolour. They’re great for you, but for us, if you can’t get an appointment at the health centre because they’re short of nurses, you can’t get in unless you’re almost dying or half dead before you get there. Then they might take a look at you and medevac you out.
I’d like to know exactly what you are going to do differently from what you’ve been doing previously, which is a major cost? We’re running deficits with these health boards, but the services have been declining. I’d just like to know why it is that we’re spending more money in these authorities, and yet there are no services in our communities.