Thank you. The cancer care coordinator will focus on navigating the system and embracing the patient-centred care philosophy. It will help improve the patient’s experience and care outcomes and empower a patient towards things like self-management, harm reduction and health improvement and maintenance.

This is a patient advocate and they will consult with a variety of health care providers in partnership with the patient. They will assist in identifying needs within the cancer care continuum for the patient and for the patient’s caregivers as well as their family. The cancer care coordinator will also work closely with the individuals in care of the roles and responsibilities. So, this is clearly an advocate position.

We do work closely with the Breast Health/Breast Cancer Action Group and the Aboriginal health and community wellness division has been doing a number of things with respect to the recommendations that have come forward from that group as well as other groups, not just them.

We aren’t, at this point in time, planning to put cancer care coordinators in every region, but we are looking at expanding the role of this particular one to be more than just breast health, and from there we’ll be able to make some more evidence-based decisions on whether this is something that is indeed needed throughout the territory. Thank you.