By Mario deSantis, February 15, 1999

Today I began to laugh when I read the article "Renewal vital in health care"(1). For the last few years, the media, leading health care economists, health care leaders and politicians all heralded Saskatchewan health care reforms as the shining light to the world; now there is a unanimous recognition, after all that pompous fanfare, that health care in Saskatchewan is in a mess and that the government should outline "...a strategy for health care that goes beyond rushing to apply Band-Aids to each gaping wound..."(2) I ask myself, what about our highways, our universities, our education, our agriculture, our crown corporations, and our business climate? If health requires a new strategy then all of these sectors of our economy would require new strategies as well.

I read Timothy Shire's article 'Office Culture"(3) Sunday, where he describes how the new fragmented office layout of the SGI(4) business in Tisdale contributes to an overall lack of civility, to the alienation of SGI's customers and to the insularity of the employees doing their jobs. We don't need a new strategic plan for health or for any other sector of the economy; what we need today is to have back our individual freedoms taken away from our tin pot dictatorships(5). We had a beautiful health care strategic plan in the Saskatchewan Vision for Health(6), and our leaders destroyed it because they didn't walk their talk, and they are continuing in not walking their  talk. There is no need of another health strategy, the Saskatchewan Vision for Health is still beautiful and current; what we need is a return to civility and a simple plan and related patience  for changing the obsolete mind set of our authoritarian leaders.

Endnotes

1. Renewal vital in health care, SP Opinions, The StarPhoenix, February 12, 1999. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2. Last sentence of the mentioned article Renewal vital in health care

3. Office Culture,by Timothy Shire, February 14, 1999. Published in the North East Central News, Tisdale, Saskatchewan

4. SGI is the Crown Corporation Saskatchewan Government Insurance

5. Saskatchewan Tin Pot Dictatorships: Lack of Integrity is Lack of Leadership, by Mario deSantis, February 7, 1999. Published in the North East Central News, Tisdale, Saskatchewan

6. Saskatchewan Vision for Health, The Honourable Louise Simard, Minister of Health, Saskatchewan Health, August 1992