Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On February 22, 2013, in Committee of the Whole, I asked the then-Minister of Health and Social services, during the review of the main estimates, questions on the right to a second medical opinion. There were some good questions and there were discussions of the review of the right to a second medical opinion. I bring this forward again today only because I’ve had discussions with people who were concerned about their medical results and their diagnosis and weren’t sure if they were getting the right treatment. Every resident in the Northwest Territories should have this right, the right to question medical test results and their diagnoses, because getting the right treatment depends on getting the right diagnosis that you’re entitled to.
We all know this. We all see it in our communities. We all have aunts, uncles, grandmothers, even kids who are afraid to ask, or there might be a language barrier, or they might not know the medical terminology, and they also put a lot of faith and trust in the physicians or the nurses who are giving them the medication or the treatment that they need.
I know mistakes, although uncommon, can be made. As a result, we have to make sure that every resident in the Northwest Territories does know and have the ability to get that right to a second medical opinion. When we talk about this right, it’s the health and the life of our residents in the Northwest Territories that’s at stake. Also, getting that second medical opinion might, in fact, result in us not having to send people out of the territory or getting them on high medical costs.
I will follow up to some questions that I asked almost two years ago in this House and see where we are in terms of providing that right to a second medical opinion for residents of the Northwest Territories, see if there’s a policy, see if there’s an act in place and how can residents access that right to get the proper treatment that they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.