Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since 2020, I think that is when we started using agency nurses, I don't have the number of the contracts and that's -- the level of detail that is. What we are doing is we're using nurses where they're not going to shut down services. And, you know, I hear that the Member -- this is something that, you know, he's raised many times in this House but then when you go out to the small communities and they're shut down and the services are -- we can't find a nurse, you know, those are the communities that, you know, may have to utilize a nurse. And so we can continue to talk about how many and how many of this, but at the end of the day, the care that these -- the residents are getting, having a nurse in the community -- you know, sometimes we have to wait, you know, does this nurse know the community? Well, the nurse knows their job. So, you know, when we sit here and we go back and forth about these numbers, when right now we have five. We have five nurses -- agency nurses keeping obstetrics open in the Northwest Territories. And so we can continue to have these discussions on the floor but I am not going to jeopardize this service in this community. And if it was in a health centre, then we'd be medevacing everybody out of that health centre to Yellowknife or to Inuvik or to Fort -- you know, this is -- that's the option. So I'll leave it at that, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.
Lesa Semmler on Question 215-20(1): Use of Agency Nurses
In the Legislative Assembly on May 29th, 2024. See this statement in context.
Question 215-20(1): Use of Agency Nurses
Oral Questions
May 29th, 2024
Page 555
See context to find out what was said next.