Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in the House to speak about issues and challenges facing our health care system in Nahendeh. On February 17, 2016, I received a letter from one of my constituents who has experienced some issues with our health centre. I shared this letter with the Minister and asked a few questions to start the process of addressing these issues and I thank the Minister for responding to me. Since receiving this letter a Facebook page was developed asking for people's comments and their experience with our health centre. There are very some very positive comments with the service, especially when comparing it to the system down south. They talked about the hard work and commitment of some of the staff. They also stressed the importance of coming up with proposed solutions to make service better. There were others who are concerned with the service. In going over the comments as well as emails and texts, I feel it is best to use their own words:
Everything seems to pivot around saving money and the convenience of management.
The needs of people seeking medical help seems to be an inconvenience to the system.
No more walk-ins are allowed; you must book a doctor's appointment at least two weeks in advance. Gone are the days where mornings were reserved for people who had appointments with doctors and the afternoons were walk-ins with no appointments. The big issue was nobody knew how this change about. There did not seem to be any consultation with the community.
There has been numerous times where people needed assistance after hours and they would have to argue with people on-call for help. Sometimes they would refuse to see the patients, other times they would see them and tell them “There's nothing wrong. Take two Aspirins and come back later on if you don't feel well.” This cannot continue. Mr. Speaker, what concerns me is that people outside the large centres do not seem to understand what it is like to live in our small to medium communities. These people have hospitals, clinics, and doctors to provide excellent service. Another struggle we have is the department's inability to fill positions with full-time staff and the need to use rotating staff. The people in Nahendeh would love to have the department recruit and bring in nurses and doctors to live and be part of our community and the region. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to continue with my statement, please.
---Unanimous consent granted
In closing, Mr. Speaker, when Fort Simpson was downgraded from a hospital to a wellness centre, we were promised we would have the same service and would not notice a difference. Well, I'd have to say that this is not true. Later on, I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services.