Hemodialysis is a very complex process. It actually involves removing the blood from the human, putting it through a machine, and inserting it back into the human. It is very complex. You need highly trained individuals to do it, and the machines need thorough cleaning after every use to make sure that there is no contamination or harm caused to our patients.
It is a very complex process. We are putting it in our hospitals. We have put it in Stanton. There is an expanded area in the new Stanton for dialysis. We have put it in Hay River. There is an expanded area in Hay River where it is. We have to work with our individual patients on a one-on-one basis. Sometimes their level of treatment is different than, say, somebody else's.
Having said all that, Mr. Speaker, there are mobile hemodialysis units that have been utilized in other jurisdictions, and we have explored that to see if it is a possibility. However, in the Northwest Territories, road access, road maintenance, and the quality of some of the roads, given the fragile nature of the machines, as well as some of the water supply we would need -- we need sterilized water; we need water that has no other chemicals and no other things in it -- really limits our ability to do the mobile hemodialysis.
When it comes to individuals with complex needs, we do transport them from their communities to where the service is available. In some cases, we have had to do some medical relocation, working with the families to bring them to those communities where the service is on a permanent basis.
We are open to being flexible, but at the end of the day, whatever we have to do or whatever we are going to do has to be safe, and we are not comfortable that the mobile hemodialysis is appropriate for the Northwest Territories at this time.