N.W.T. Health Minister Glen Abernethy on doctor complaints, assisted suicide

Northwest Territories Health Minister Glen Abernethymet with his federal, provincial and territorial counterparts in Vancouverthis week. CBC North caught up with him on Thursday for an updateon N.W.T.'s lack of an online registry for doctor disciplinary records andwhat's under discussion in B.C.

The following interview has been edited and condensed.

Right now, members of the public have to request information about doctor's disciplinary pasts, unlike some provinces who can just find that information online. Will your department create an online directory where disciplinary decisions can be searched?

Under the old Medical Profession Act, it was silent on releasing Board of Inquiry filings, and this was prior to 2010. So pre-2010, the Access to Information and Privacy protection applies. So we can't disclose any private and personal information. But we can disclose some general statistics the findings, if you will.For instance, we can tell you that there were threecases brought to the Board of Inquiry, and only one resulted in any reprimand.

• In depth|N.W.T., Nunavut doctors' disciplinary pasts not online, unlike in provinces

Under the new Medical Professions Act, which was passed in 2010, we do have some mechanisms to respond to complaints, with the provision for the Board of Inquiry. There's different things that we can do. And for the record, there are some specific provisions in the new act that includeus providing a public record for decisions of the inquiry panel. There haven't been any since 2010.

So there is a provision for us to have a public register. We do have a public register. We haven't posted it online because there isn't anybody on it.

We have a requirement to have the registry. There's no requirement to making the registry public. But we'd certainly look at doing that if there was anything on it.

The NWT only sees an average of about three complaints about doctors a year. Do you think people, especially in smaller communities, even know where to turn if they want to make a complaint?

We have quality assurance in each of our [health] authorities. We encourage patients to, obviously, first speak with their health professionals who are providing care. If they're uncomfortable raising concerns with their health professionals, then we ask them to contact the health and social services authority that is responsible for the facility where the doctor happens to be.

We do provide a system navigator to assist residents of the Northwest Territories. So if residents are unaware of the process, the navigator can actually provide that information. Also, the system navigator can provide information on where the person can actually file complaints.And the department has entered into a contract with the Collegeof Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, who actually provide that service for us.

There are a number of ways that we try to ensure that the public has this information. We do try to make sure that our staff are aware and direct people to the appropriate place.

The federal government is planning to introduce legislation that will legalize and regulate access to marijuana. What is the GNWT doing to plan for what that will look like, and how it will affect the territory?

I am at the F/P/T [health ministers' meetings] this week. We just finished our meetings with the federal, provincial and territorial ministers, and this question did come up.

Bottom line:we don't know what the federal legislation is going to look like, and the extent of what they're going to go to within the federal government. The federal minister did indicate that they are putting together a task force to research and investigate this issue as they move forward.Until we have a better sense of what this means, and the length they are going to go to with this legislation, we're kind of in a holding pattern.

We don't know what they are going to do, and what that's going to mean for each of the provinces and territories. We anticipate that they are going to put their task force together shortly, and once we have a sense of the terms of reference of that task force, we may be in a better position to start engaging within our own territory. But at this point, we don't know enough to have informed discussions.

Any update on the N.W.T. assisted suicide policy that could be coming down?

The Supreme Court [of Canada] has made their ruling, and the federal government's modified their criminal code legislation. We have already begun our public consultation process. We have sent out letters to stakeholders;I believe there's going to be ads in the papers. We need to get out there and have that conversation on how to best implement physician-assisted dying in the Northwest Territories.

But we want to do it as part of a palliative care plan, as well, to provide the best quality and the best care possible during end of life. Some of what that will eventually look like will be dependent on how much the federal government amends their criminal code legislation. What I can say is that the provinces and territories have agreed that there is value in having our approach as similar as possible. So we will be working with our colleagues across the country to develop those policies.

It's going to take legislation within the N.W.T. But we don't know for sure what that's going to look like. What I can say is there's no chance there's going to be legislation done in the next four months. So in the interim, we can issue directives to help us get through.

If somebody wants to utilize physician-assisted dying [in the next four months], they do have to apply to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories. And we will work with our colleagues, the College of Physicians [and Surgeons] in Alberta, as well as other people and professionals in the Northwest Territories, to help us set up some correctives,if that scenario does present itself.