Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve always known that there is a staff shortage of nurses right across the Territories. We also know that we have a separate governance system in every health and social services authority across the territory. We can’t share resources as though
we have one single governing system with doctors or nurses the same. So the health authorities with their own governance system get the nurses in, they hire the nurses or they hire locums to fill in these positions. So in reality, the department is not specifically aware where and when the nurses are not going to be, although they advise us that these places would have only essential services for certain periods.
As the Member indicated, in one place for 11 days they only had essential services. So we are aware all the time that there is a shortage of nurses, but where the authorities will deploy these nurses, we are not completely aware of that. Thank you.