By Mario deSantis, January 18, 2000

Our politicians and bureaucratic leaders should explicate public responsibilities; instead, they have created a world of their own, where creativity in designing schemes to support their position of power supercedes their public responsibilities. In our past articles we have been dwelling at length on the corrupted environment of health care and on the mismanaging of the related ever increasing resources.

Recently, one patient died at a Weyburn hospital after he was waiting for being transferred to a Regina hospital(1). A Regina cardiologist had recommended that this patient be transferred to Regina, and notwithstanding three calls were made to have this patient transferred, the Regina Health District responded that no beds were available. Dr. Stan Oleksinski, president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association, has stated that the chronic bed and staff shortages have been the reasons for not transferring this patient and therefore the death of this patient should be attributed to the present mismanagement of health resources.

Pat Atkinson, Minster of Health, has come to the defence of the Regina Health District, and referring to a previous government report into another similar death(2), has stated that the patient was not transferred to Regina because his doctors failed to clearly indicate the urgency of the case. After not accepting responsibilities for the current mess in health care, Pat Atkinson is telling the doctors that the number of calls or efforts to have a patient transferred are not adequate, what is required is that the doctors are precise in their communication of the acuity of the patient's needs. Now, in order to appreciate the sincerity of Pat Atkinson's statements in shifting the blame against the doctors, we can refer to her hypocritical statement when she said that our bureaucracy "... was being too busy to really listen, to really hear, all the legitimate concerns facing nurses and other health care workers..."(3), and to her support for the $50 million overrun for the closure of the plains Health Centre(4).

Dear Honourable Pat Atkinson, who are you trying to kid anymore? Why don't you just take your own responsibilities and serve decently the public? I tell you that we don't need to be clearly or scientifically precise to do our jobs(5), we just need to be competent, have common sense, be good willing and be able to work with our partners, why don't you?

Endnotes

1. Death result of shortages: SMA head, by Barb Pacholik, January 15, 2000, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

2. Government report on the death of Wayne Gawdun. This death occurred on October 1, 1997 at a Yorkton hospital while Wayne Gawdun was waiting for a transfer to a Regina hospital.

3. News Release dated Apr 12, 1999, Health 99 - 287, MINISTER APPEALS TO NURSES, letter dated 11 April 1999 from Health Minister Pat Atkinson to Saskatchewan Union of Nurses President Rosalee Longmoore http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999Apr/287.99041205.html

4. The closure of the Plains Health Centre: The $50 million overrun and the gimmick of savings money in health care, by Mario deSantis, December 19, 1999

5. Fragmented Research comes to the help of Saskatchewan Reform, by Mario deSantis, September 28, 1999