Mr. Chairman, it is absolutely fair for you to raise any issues you like. I am happy to respond to them here.
Mr. Chairman, I think it is really important to remember that, for the last four days, we have been talking about the importance of making sure that we use our Health and Social Services dollars wisely. We have a $326 million budget. The needs and demands are endless. On any given day, I have at least a million dollar ask on my desk that I cannot meet. We do spend about $1 million a day. It is a high cost business. We do a very good job, so when I say it is about application, it means we have programs set up and, as good as it might be, we do have hiccups.
But we have to remember that we are serving 40,000 people and I think for the vast majority of cases people are happy with our service, because I do get notes and letters from people who are thankful for the services they receive. I tabled two documents earlier this week, which is the satisfaction survey for hospital service and health centres. I would like to encourage the Members to look at that because there is some real grading from our public saying that they are, generally, getting good support. So when I say to Members it’s about application, of course, sometimes people feel that they weren’t treated as well as they have been. They have questions about what kind of diagnosis they had. They want to know what happened to their family. So we need to have a mechanism to make sure that those are responded to. I’m totally happy to be working and continue to work with the Member to improve our system, but that’s what I mean when I say that.
The other thing is escorts for elders. We need to talk about who… We want to use medical travel in the best way possible, and some elders may not want an escort. I think MLA Bisaro mentioned that she’s an elder already and I don’t know if she would need an escort. Our elder population is the largest population and it’s the highest growing population. What’s important is we use our money for those
people who need it. We may need who’s not an elder who needs support. We may have an elder who’s able and they don’t need an escort. It is important that when we are reviewing this service, that it is essential for the delivery of our health care that we look at what the needs are. That’s what we mean when we say the right service for the right people at the right time. We generally support the elders, but we shouldn’t be so inflexible that just because you’re 60 but you speak English and you don’t need an escort, you’re going to get one. Then somebody who really needs it couldn’t get it. I think that’s always the adjustment we need to make. Thank you.