Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The last written question. It's with respect to the medical travel case management and referral coordination.
Mr. Speaker, medical travel is a critical lifeline for remote communities, but it remains one of the fastest growing and most volatile expenditure sectors in the health budget. Internal inefficiencies like duplicate bookings and uncoordinated non-medical escorts cause both financial waste and severe patient distress. To ensure accountability, the department must provide empirical evidence that recent administrative investments such as specialized nurse case managers are successfully streamlining care and lowering the program's overall cost trajectory.
My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services:
What is the current operational status, completed milestones, and implementation timeline of the "referral coordination project" originally identified under the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority's Deficit Reduction Plan.
- How will the recently announced medical travel nurse case manager positions in Yellowknife be operationalized to actively reduce common system inefficiencies, such as administrative duplication, missed connections, or premature patient rebooking?
- What specific performance indicators, metrics, or financial benchmarks is the Department of Health and Social Services tracking to measure whether the addition of these specialized case management positions is successfully lowering the overall cost trajectory of the medical travel program?
- Of the total medical travel flights authorized in the last fiscal year, what percentage were classified as non-urgent or escort travel, and what was the corresponding total expenditure for those categories? And finally, Mr. Speaker,
- What steps are being taken to integrate real-time digital tracking or portal access for patients and referring community health centres to reduce administrative backlogs within the medical travel system?
And that's the last question for today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.