Thank you. We have a pool of relief casual nurses, mainly in Yellowknife but not limited to that. The term locum is usually when you have got longer coverage, so we have a pool for short term, but we have moved to developing and training our own casuals, not as it was when Human Resources was in the department but clearly still continues. So, yes, we have them.
Debates of Feb. 7th, 2011
This is page numbers 5623 - 5662 of the Hansard for the 16th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was health.
Topics
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Meade
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Glen Abernethy Great Slave
I think we are combining and using terms and it is getting a little confusing for me. Relief nurses are an indeterminate nurse that has been hired by Stanton to provide backfill when nurses call in sick or are away on holidays, but they are permanent without guaranteed hours and they are indeterminate employees. That is one category. I would be curious what the utilization of them is.
There is the other category which is casuals, who have been offered training, IAP particular, so that we could hire them to go out and provide backfill in the communities when there isn’t somebody, a permanent nurse in a position, whether it is vacant or whether that nurse has gone on holidays. Once upon a time, we used to advertise. We used to
bring people up from the South, we used to train them through IAP and then they would owe us a return of service. That is what the Government of the Northwest Territories casual relief pool was. Not indeterminate but no guaranteed hours, we would train them and they would owe us a period of time. We would also call those the community health nurse locum pool. I believe that still exists. Can you confirm that that exists on top of the relief work and our utilization of agency nurses?
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Meade
Yes, and we can get a breakdown, as you requested earlier, but also beyond that, authorities find themselves with nurse shortages and they are looking at experienced nurses who may or may not have worked in the North; usually people that have been here or are now working in other jurisdictions or even retired, who are also coming up for longer locums. So that’s a whole other piece that I refer to as the locum pool.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Glen Abernethy Great Slave
Once upon a time any nurse working in a community health centre who was employed by the GNWT, and that included agency relief nurses or agency nurses as well, we required them to take or provide proof that they have equivalent to IAP. We also required every nurse who worked in a community health centre to have the IAP equivalent. Do we still require that of nurses, regardless of how or why we’re employing them, who are working in the community health centres to have that or its equivalent?
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Meade
We’d certainly look at the equivalency because not everybody is trained with the numbers that we need. Our use of locums and casuals has increased. It’s the equivalency that we looked at but we can certainly clarify more information on that.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Glen Abernethy Great Slave
In clarifying that, I also want to see whether or not we require our term and indeterminate nurses working in community health centres to have IAP.
Another section within this particular division or area is physician services. I was interested, when the Minister was talking she referred to if we were running on physicians on sort of a territorial model rather than a regional or authority model. Is there any progress to going to that territorial model for physicians or are we still running it as an authority-based model?
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Meade
I would say that there certainly is support from the medical directors’ forum. The issue is what’s the actual coverage need from what the new model will be. In general, at the JSMC there’s always fear when you make this kind of a change, because it gets misinterpreted as what does that really mean, will we lose doctor services? So we’re talking about a virtual pool, pooling all the resources and what the future model is. Part of that work is being done by the medical directors as far as the physician resource model numbers that are
required and where. Is there 100 percent buy-in yet? No, but clearly we’ve got a lot of work developed in that area.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
The Chair Bob Bromley
I would like to thank the Minister and her witnesses and ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to escort the witnesses from the House.
I will now rise and report progress.
Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole
Bob Bromley Weledeh
Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 133-16(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 2011-2012, and would like to report progress. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Mahsi.
Report of Committee of the Whole
Report of Committee of the Whole
The Speaker Paul Delorey
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. A motion is on the floor. Do we have a seconder? The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.
---Carried
Item 23, third reading of bills. Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.
Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day
Tim Mercer Clerk Of The House
Orders of the day for Tuesday, February 8, 2011, at 1:30 p.m.:
1. Prayer
2. Ministers’
Statements
3. Members’
Statements
4. Returns to Oral Questions
5. Recognition of Visitors in the Gallery
6. Acknowledgements
7. Oral
Questions
8. Written
Questions
9. Returns to Written Questions
10. Replies to Opening Address
11. Replies to Budget Address
12. Petitions
13. Reports of Standing and Special Committees
14. Reports of Committees on the Review of Bills
15. Tabling of Documents
16. Notices of Motion
17. Notices of Motion for First Reading of Bills
18. Motions
19. First Reading of Bills
20. Second Reading of Bills
21. Consideration in Committee of the Whole of
Bills and Other Matters
- Tabled Document 4-16(5), Executive
Summary of the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project
- Tabled Document 30-16(5), 2010 Review of Members’ Compensation and Benefits
- Tabled Document 38-16(5), Supplementary Health Benefits - What We Heard
- Tabled Document 62-16(5), Northern
Voices, Northern Waters: NWT Water Stewardship Strategy
- Tabled Document 75-16(5), Response to the Joint Review Panel for the Mackenzie Gas Project on the Federal and Territorial Governments’ Interim Response to “Foundation for a Sustainable Northern Future”
- Tabled Document 103-16(5), GNWT
Contracts over $5,000 Report, Year Ending March 31, 2010
- Tabled Document 133-16(5), Northwest
Territories Main Estimates, 2011-2012
- Tabled Document 135-16(5), GNWT
Response to CR 3-16(5): Report on the Review of the Child and Family Services Act
- Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Social
Assistance Act
- Bill 14, An Act to Amend the Conflict of Interest Act
- Bill 17, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act
- Bill 20, An Act to Amend the Evidence Act
- Minister’s Statement 65-16(5), Devolution Agreement-in-Principle, Impact on Land Claims and Protection of Aboriginal Rights
- Minister’s Statement 88-16(5), Sessional Statement
22. Report of Committee of the Whole
23. Third Reading of Bills
24. Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day
Orders of the Day
The Speaker Paul Delorey
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Tuesday, February 8, 2011, at 1:30 p.m.
---ADJOURNMENT
The House adjourned at 6:12 p.m.