By Mario deSantis, September 30, 1999

I was listening to the radio Tuesday morning and I heard that offshore efforts by the Regina Health District have materialized in the recruiting of nurses from New Zealand. Our health care system is now on the upswing and as confirmation of this, the Health Services Utilization and Research Commission (HSURC) has just released a research(1) suggesting that rural health has improved since health reform were implemented in 1993. Never mind if the Government has not listened to health care employees for the last nine years(2), that there is a lack of nurses, that waiting lines for surgeries are getting longer, that medical specialists are leaving the province, that the health care system is continuing to dig holes into the grounds(3) (4) with the renovation of the Regina hospitals(5) and the supposed protection of our personal medical information through the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN)(6). We have now the release of a research which has identified for rural Saskatchewan a sharp decline in the age-sex-standardized mortality rates in the four years of health reform 1993 through 1996.

We must be proud of our health researchers who are able to mine and manipulate demographic data and come up with such dramatic results by looking at only four year data, who knows, maybe in the future they will be able to come up with relevant demographic conclusions by analysing only one year data!

Our researchers are top reductionists(7) who have used sophisticated statistical tools such as profile analysis based on Generalized Linear Model, analysis of covariance, and mixed modelling for repeated measurements; after stating that "...perceptions are neither right nor wrong..."(8), they were able to discern perceptions from reality, ignore a recent research indicating the deterioration of our health care(9), ignore all the current provincial events pointing to a health care crisis, and finally they were able to pin down the objective of their study within their geographical context and conclude in a two dimensional paper that health care has not suffered in rural Saskatchewan.

Poor researchers, they would be better off putting aside their researches for a while, begin learning again and use their imagination rather than misplacing their knowledge and looking for ever additional research funding(10). We must all change our calcified mind set, and we must all remember that "...problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them..."(11)

Endnotes

1. Assessing the Impact of the 1993 Acute Care Funding Cuts to Rural Saskatchewan Hospitals, by Health Services Utilization and Research Commission (HSURC), Summary Report No. 13, September 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2. MINISTER APPEALS TO NURSES, Government of Saskatchewan, News Releases, Apr 12, 1999 Health 99 - 287 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999Apr/287.99041205.html

3. Never enough money for SAHO, by Mario deSantis, March 30, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

4. SAHO Payroll Policies: Saving Money out of Ongoing Catastrophes, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

5. PREMIER ROMANOW: PLAYING THE NUMBER GAME. Publicizing the 22% salary increase and covering up the $40 million overrun, by Mario deSantis, April 19, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

6. What Happened to the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN)?, by Mario deSantis, June 10, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

7. Quote from "Synchronicity" by F. David Peat: There is an obvious advantage in being able to explain complex things in terms of simpler ones, or large systems in terms of smaller. Therefore analysis, with its reduction from complexity to simplicity, is traditionally a useful way of doing science. However, its drawbacks become apparent when analysis adopts the position "nothing but." When chemistry is "nothing but the physics of molecules," an organism is "nothing but its constituent chemistry," and mind "nothing but nerve cells and neurochemicals in action," then a narrowness of perspective results. http://www.cyberpass.net/~h2o/wwwboard/messages/107534.html

8. Assessing the Impact of the 1993 Acute Care Funding Cuts to Rural Saskatchewan Hospitals, by Health Services Utilization and Research Commission (HSURC), Summary Report No. 13, page 10, September 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

9. Research study conducted by Richard Plain, a health science economist with the University of Alberta. In this study, Plain states that "...In the short run, (Saskatchewan) moved from a position of excellence to one of mediocrity as far as the health of its population is concerned..."

10. Do we need further specialized researches in Saskatchewan health care?, by Mario deSantis, May 20, 1999. Published in the North Central Internet News

11. Famous quote by Albert Einstein