Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We then looked at how quickly the personal protection equipment was being used during the first year of the pandemic, and overall, we were satisfied that we had enough equipment from the Public Health Agency of Canada to meet the needs of communities.
We must also recognize the challenge of acquiring this equipment on an international scale. In response to the recommendation, we also started working with the Public Health Agency of Canada on a joint automated inventory management tool. This will give us accessible, up-to-date information on the stockpile.
This past summer, we worked with a contractor to finish a full recount of all the equipment. That enabled us to update our inventory tracker accordingly.
I am very pleased to say that the department's inventory target has increased from six to 12 months' worth of equipment in its stockpile at all times.
We have now moved from a six-month to a 12-month supply at all times. We're also committed to conducting monthly inventory analysis so that we can be proactively managing the PPE stockpile, staying on top of trends and anticipating any needs. Finally, we're reviewing our chain of PPE custody and disposal practices to ensure a stable inventory.
The Auditor General's second recommendation concerned the shortage of nurses and paramedics.
The report said that the department should work with remote or isolated first nations communities to look at other ways to address the shortage of nurses and to review the nursing and paramedic support that communities received.
The department agreed with that recommendation. In response, we are now collaborating with the 50 first nations communities that we serve directly and the 29 communities that are managing their own nursing stations.
Supported by budget 2021, we are focusing on three areas: hiring new nurses, keeping them in the job and lessons learned during the pandemic.
All of this work is being done in partnership with nursing leadership within the department and our indigenous partners, and under the umbrella of the nursing health human resources framework. We're examining how we can better recruit and retain nurses by enhancing nursing supports and increasing access to practical nurses and nurse practitioners to augment the existing registered nurse workforce. The department has established and managed surge nursing and paramedic contracts to complement our workforce. Since April 2021, there have been over 11,000 service days of surge supports provided to help maintain essential clinical services in remote communities.
We're also working to create an internal primary care nurse service team. In time, this team will provide us with added flexibility to respond to the need for additional nursing resources. We're making improvements in areas such as customized nurse supports to resolve frontline issues related to IT, compensation and security.
We're also working to enhance our clinical practice supports and, of course, our continued 24-7 access to a customized nurse employee assistance program. As we all know, our frontline workforce has been working very hard under challenging circumstances throughout the pandemic.
We thank the Auditor General for the valuable recommendations, and we feel that the changes we have made have strengthened our response to this pandemic. They will also put us in a stronger place to respond to future health care needs.
Meegwetch. Qujannamiik. Marsi. Merci. Thank you.