This is page numbers 3095 - 3130 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was know.

Topics

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you for the question. The staff component at Stanton Territorial Hospital is 466 and the vacancy rate was 13.1 percent as of June 30th. And there are 61 positions that were actively being recruited for as of June 30th. Those are the most recent statistics I have. Thank you.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know there is a lot of efforts being done to make sure we fill those 61 positions, and I know that it's costly not to fill them. And I was hoping the Minister could inform us with this latest closure of obstetrics, what is the estimated cost of sending all those patients to Edmonton to give birth as opposed to, if they were able to, here in Yellowknife. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have an answer for the Member, but I want to say at the beginning that any recruiting efforts we are successful with right now will likely take a few weeks to implement, especially if the person needs to relocate to Yellowknife from another place.

To the costs of sending the patients to Edmonton, it's our estimate that it will be approximately $12,500 for the patient and her escort to go to Edmonton and stay there for 28 days, or four weeks. This cost includes flights, accommodation, transportation, and meals for the traveler and her escort. And those services may be augmented by the pregnant person's own employee benefit plans if the person has those available to them by the NIHB or by other employer benefits, depending on who they work for. Thank you.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just doing some on-the-fly math, I believe there was 90 Yellowknife residents. I know there was some Nunavut residents who were also affected. But 90 times $12,500 is $1,125,000. Can I just get a clarification on that $12,500 statistic? Is that the cost of all the medical travel and the accommodations, and does it include I believe if we send someone to birth in Edmonton, Alberta Health Services is going to bill us back for those services. Does it include that number and if not, what would that be? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that this number includes the cost of service from Alberta Health Services. This is the medical travel cost. But I can find out what the billing would be, or at least a range. You know, some deliveries are very straightforward and others aren't, as we all know, and so that may also impact the amount of money that is spent with Alberta Health Services for their support. Thank you.

Rylund Johnson

Rylund Johnson Yellowknife North

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would appreciate the Minister following up with what we expect Alberta to bill us back. I know that they bill us back millions of dollars a year, and I expect that births, even one complicated birth, can get very expensive really quickly. And I guess my point here is that this closure is becoming a million dollar cost to us. I think that's quite clear. We're in that range. And I know it's been reported that the OBS nurses for years have been asking for an additional staff person and there's some debate about, you know, about whether that is needed. But I think this is proven that, you know, one closure is easily more than the cost of funding that staff position. So my question for the Minister is there is a political win here where we can fund an additional OBS nurse and hope that this closure never happens again? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say I hope this is a one-off that I never have to stand here and talk about the obstetrics unit being closed again.

In terms of adding an additional staff, I don't know where those discussions are at within the hospital. I do know that the number of births that Stanton has been declining over the last three or four years. I also know that they have a large number of vacancies at this point so I'm not sure that adding another position is actually going to bring them another body, because we are, you know, in the midst of recruiting for those vacancies. So I think that this is a conversation that we need to have. Maybe the value of the fourth position over the long term is that people are more able to take their time off. So it's certainly something I'm interested in. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions, Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, understandably, Members from this side of the House have been holding the Department of Health and Social Services to task this week in this House, but I just wanted to start off with a thank you today during question period.

My two youngest children were vaccinated against COVID-19, and I'm incredibly grateful to the Department of Health and Social Services for that.

One of my jokesters asked me if this was his Christmas present and it's probably not his, but it was definitely mine. So thank you very much for that.

Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. It is my understanding that staff surveys are done through the accreditation process for hospitals. What were the outcomes of the 2019 hospital -- or Stanton accreditation surveys at -- or in Yellowknife while they were going through that process. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm just going to say at the outset, there are quite a large number of surveys that involve the nursing staff. There are these accreditation surveys my colleague has mentioned. I have also mentioned the exit surveys for people who have resigned this year as healthcare professionals, nurses in particular, and that the nurses professional association is doing a survey as well about issues that are leading to people's job dissatisfaction.

So to narrow this down to the accreditation survey, there were two of them conducted in connection with the accreditation. One is the Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey and the other is Worklife Pulse Survey.

So for the Canadian Patient Safety Survey, the results show that the NTHSSA reported higher than the Canadian average in three of eight survey dimensions, and three dimensions scored within five percent of the Canadian average under the dimensions that the NTHSSA scored lower than the Canadian average. So this is not easy to understand as I read it out here. But what I think it says is that the Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey gave us a reasonable rating where we were either above or on par in most areas.

The Worklife Pulse Survey reported higher than Canadian average results in four of seven survey dimensions. Having said that, the lowest score, compared to Canadian averages, was received for the health and safety of the work environment. So clearly, there was a flag in that survey that work needed to be done in that area. Thank you.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that information. I think that there are, you know, a lot of discussions of surveys and collecting information.

And so my next question for the Minister is what were the outcomes that relate to staff morale and staffing issues at Stanton that came out of the surveys and were there any changes from the previous surveys or the exit interviews that were done that were able to be implemented at Stanton. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that they took the information and made a communications plan to address the areas of weakness that were identified. As a result of that, they have biweekly all-staff updates; they have improved the use of internal communication platforms; they have promoted the use of internal feedback tools to receive questions and information from staff. I know there is sort of a suggestion box function now that people can use anonymously to point out issues and concerns. And it's my understanding that in fact these tools are heavily used, and that's been particularly the case during the COVID pandemic period. Thank you.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. It's my understanding that some of the issues that we're hearing about are definitely persistent issues in a lot of our high stress shift work type environments within the GNWT. And so I guess I'm wondering what -- what information is management within Stanton expecting to hear from the current nursing survey that is different from the one that they've previously heard and how is this time going to be different. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have any information about the results of the surveys now underway. But I will say that they are being conducted almost three years later than the surveys I spoke about at the beginning of my answers. And so I think the operating environment has changed because of COVID and that the results will be different. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of these exit surveys. And we understand that there are ways that we can improve the work life of nurses at Stanton and on the obstetrics unit, we're hearing a lot about at the moment. And, you know, somebody has already said this today, and I've said it here as well, it is preferable to retain a nurse than recruit a nurse. It works better for all of us if we have someone who's already here, enjoys working in the North, has a family and life established here, to stay here, rather than feel that the working conditions are such that their preference is to move on, particularly because of the working conditions. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Given this Assembly's interest in not only recruiting but also, as the Minister states, retaining our healthcare workers in the Northwest Territories, I'm wondering if the Minister is willing to commit to sharing the results of that survey and also the responses from the Department of Health and Social Services to address them with this House. Thank you.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Yes, thank you. I understand that there's a health system human resources plan that's being finalized and my colleague, the Minister responsible for Human Resources has spoken about this, and the results of the surveys that I've spoken of will inform actions to improve the recruitment and retention of health care staff. I will in fact, share with the Standing Committee on Social Development the plan when it's complete and the summaries of the surveys when they're available. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, our time for oral questions has expired. Written questions. Returns to written questions. Replies to Commissioner's address. Petitions. Reports of committees under review of bills. Reports of standing and special committees. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled Plain Language Summary for Bill 40: An Act to Amend the Medical Profession Act. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Tabling of Documents. Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Inuvialuit Water Board Annual Report April 1, 2020 - March 31st, 2021;
The Natural Resources Conservation Trust Fund Financial Statements for the Year Ended March 31, 2021; and, NWT 9-1-1 Annual Report 2020-2021


MR. SPEAKER: Thank you, Minister. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for Justice.

Tabled Document 492-19(2):
Legal Aid Commission of the Northwest Territories Annual Report 2020-2021

Tabled Document 493-19(2):
Annual Report on the Activities of the Rental Officer April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled Legal Aid Commission of the Northwest Territories Annual Report 2020-2021; and, Annual Report on the Activities of the Rental Officer April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Tabling of documents. Notices of motion. Motions. Member for Nunakput.

Jackie Jacobson

Jackie Jacobson Nunakput

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the Honourable Member for Thebacha, that Committee Report 17-19(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report of Review of Bills of Bill 23, an Act to Amend the Public Utilities Act; Committee Report 18-19(2) Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment Report Review of Bill 24, an Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act; Committee Report 19-19(2) Standing Committee on Economic Development Environment Report on Review of Bill 29, Resource Royalty Information Disclosure Statute Amendment Act be received by the Assembly and moved into the Committee of the Whole for your consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.