The proposed changes to the supplemental health benefits policy are being tossed, according to the Minister of Health and Social Services.
The announcement was made by Sandy Lee at the legislative assembly on Friday, after strong opposition arose from seniors and other residents whose supplementary health care costs, including glasses, dental care and prescriptions, covered in the current benefits policy.
The current plan covers all supplementary costs for non-aboriginal Northwest Territories residents over the age of 60, on income assistance, or diagnosed with certain medical conditions such as cancer.

The changes would have seen coverage assessed by the recipients household income, and those above a certain income level would have to make a co-payment for their coverage.
According to Lee, the changes would have allowed the working poor to have full coverage, but residents were concerned about wanting to charge user fees on the elderly and the sick.
Aboriginal residents in the NWT are covered by a separate federal program.
A press release sent out by the GNWT states that, “the 2007 Policy on Supplemental Health Benefits will be withdrawn and the Department of Health and Social Services will concentrate efforts on ensuring existing extended health care benefits programs are fairly and consistently administered.”
It continues on to explain the changes it will now implement, which includes developing a pharmaceutical strategy which includes generic drugs, pricing and efficiencies, cost containment of distribution and access, the elimination of the 2004 grandfathering of Extended Health Benefits and amendments to both the Extended Health Benefits and the Metis Health Benefits program. Amendments will require both programs to require the use of third party insurance as the first option, and ensure parity with the Federal Non-Insured Health Benefits program.
“Decisions surrounding health care, particularly who pays and for what, are some of the most contentious and sensitive that a government faces,” Lee said. “We have agreed to move forward with changes consistent with the principles agreed to by the Joint Working Group, and to implement these changes during the life of this Government.”

The Government of the Northwest Territories responded Friday to the coroner’s report into the 2009 death of a Yellowknife man on the anti-depressant Venlafaxine.
Minister of Health and Social Services Sandy Lee said the department took the recommendations in the March 2 report seriously and waited until the end of the month to respond since two of the recommendations were clinical in nature and needed to be addressed by medical professionals.

“We are committed to a timely response,” she said Thursday. “We will not rush to judgments on matters as serious as this. We take all recommendations seriously.”
The March 2 report into the death of Steven Harry concluded the 20-year-old man committed suicide on Feb. 1, 2009 by consuming a lethal amount of Venlafaxine, which is more commonly known as Effexor. Harry, who attempted to commit suicide at least three times in the months before his death, was given a three-month prescription for Venlafaxine on Jan. 4, 2009. Three days later, he was taken to Stanton Territorial Hospital by members of the RCMP after consuming a handful of the pills. The officers had been called to the home after Harry allegedly assaulted his mother.
Less than a month later, Harry appeared at Stanton Territorial Hospital with an empty bottle of Venlafaxine, and suffered a seizure while in the ER. The decision was then made to medivac Harry to Calgary. After he went into cardiac arrest while en route, the medivac landed in Edmonton so Harry could be transported to Royal Alexandria Hospital. Despite resuscitative efforts, Harry was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. The report by deputy chief coroner Cathy Menard concluded that at the time of his death, Harry had 59 times the therapeutic level of Venlafaxine in his bloodstream.
Menard’s report made three recommendations: that the Department distribute a warning notice calling attention to the potential dangers of prescribing Venlafaxine to patients whose depression may be of concern; that the Department educate physicians to only prescribe a partial fill of the medication in the case of high-risk patients; and that the Department develop a plan for a properly-equipped drug detoxification centre in the NWT.
The first two recommendations were already in place before Menard released her report, Dr. Jim Corkal, Stanton’s medical director, said.
“Physicians are aware of the side effects of Effexor,” Corkal told reporters. “This case has once again highlighted them.”
Following Harry’s death, Stanton undertook an internal review that included an education process on the drug, including the recommendation that physicians should order a pharmacy to dispense only a partial prescription in the case of a high-risk patient.
“We had already acted on that particular recommendation prior to receiving the coroner’s report,” Corkal explained.
Dr. David King, the Department’s medical director, said his role was to review the process that was in place and to ensure patient safety.
“I’m pleased to report the process is in place,” he said.
When Health Canada has issued warnings on Effexor, they were distributed to physicians, pharmacy directorates, and medical directors across the country, King said.
“That particular process had already been in place and had been developed and distributed,” he said of Menard’s first recommendation.
The Department has not considered placing a limitation on the amount of anti-depressants a physician in the NWT can prescribe, King said. King said pharmacists will contact a physician if they need clarification or have concerns about a prescription, which adds an additional safety measure.
“I don’t regulate pharmacists, pharmacists don’t regulate physicians,” he said. “In the spirit of cooperation (and) looking for the best possible outcomes for our patients, I think collaboration is the way to go, and there is a means to do that.”
Lee said that NWT medical professionals are on top of any warning and practice due diligence when prescribing medication. The Department’s current procedures meet the recommendations made by Menard.
“Our message today is that the residents of the NWT should be assured that the proper procedures are being followed,” she said.
Corkal said those who are currently using Venlafaxine have no reasons for concern.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s not like everyone has to stop their Effexor use out there.”

Known as the NWT HealthNet Viewer, the system is a web-based portal that will allow authorized health care professionals in the NWT “view-only” access to medical information including lab results, diagnostic imaging reports, clinical reports, patient lists and event history from health care centres across the NWT. The viewer is the first part of the interoperable Electronic Health Record (iEHR). The new system will allow health professionals to make more timely decisions as well provide better patient care.
Sandy Lee, Minister of Health and Social Services, called the viewer “an innovative tool” that will improve patient safety and allow treatment and care plans to be developed sooner.
“Today marks an important technological milestone in the delivery of health care in the Northwest Territories,” Lee said. “(The viewer) will allow doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals the ability to view electronically key information contained in a patient’s record.”
Once information is fed into the iEHR repository from one of the NWT’s four acute care facilities, it will be available to health care providers across the territory. Authorized users will require a security token, user ID, and password to access the system, and will only be able to view information relevant to their role.
Currently there are multiple information systems in each community, with limited remote access or sharing of information between the systems. With the new system, lab results will be available in the
Viewer once the results are known – compared with wait times of up to a number of weeks with current, paper-based results – while the possibility of duplicate exams will be eliminated. Initially the system will include text reports from Stanton, as well as laboratory results from Stanton, Hay River and Inuvik from June 30, 2009 onwards.
With the changes, the electronic information systems in the NWT will now be able to “speak to each other,” a HSS official explained, by reducing the number of systems involved, replacing old systems and by providing a more complete health care picture by implementing solutions that will capture and share information electronically.
“This is transforming the way we are providing care,” Michele Hancsicsak, HSS chief information officer, said at Friday’s press conference.
Health care providers asked for the system, and were actively involved in the process.
“These investments are all part of our strategy (A Foundation for Change),” Hancsicsak explained. The strategy has three goals: wellness (helping communities and individuals make healthy choices), accessibility (getting people the care that they need, when they need it), and sustainability (using resources efficiently to ensure the health care system is sustained for the future).
Currently 147 health care professionals have access to the new system, including those in Hay River, Aklavik, Fort Smith, Yellowknife and Fort Simpson, and others referred by the NWT to DynaLife Laboratory in Alberta. It will be rolled out to all NWT clinical users over the spring.
The health viewer was made possible through a partnership between Canada Health Infoway and the GNWT. Canada Health Infoway, a not-for-profi t organization that is tasked by the federal government to accelerate the development of electronic health records across Canada, invested $5.7 million in the project. The NWT HealthNet Viewer was developed using the technology found in Alberta’s Netcare Portal. It will continue to grow over time as more patient information becomes available electronically.