By Mario deSantis, January 21, 2000

Our politicians and bureaucrats leverage their position of powers by shifting the blame for a crumbling health care system to the extent of breaking the law(1) and have the legal community supporting this state of affairs. Consultants, politicians, administrators, academicians, board members, they are all spreading the word that health care is underfunded in Saskatchewan. In early 90s we were spending about 25% of the provincial budget for health care, in 1993 health care spending increased to 33% of the budget, and now this percentage has increased to 40%.

Where is the underfunding for healthcare in Saskatchewan? It is in the big brains(2) of our leaders! Dr. Stan Oleksinski, president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association, has rightly stated that the present mess in health care should be attributed to the ongoing mismanagement of health resources(3). Our demented big brains have a "black and white" mentality and cannot see the many management alternatives we could be creating if only we would empower our work force(4). Instead, we have a management style based on fear and intimidation and that is why the working conditions are atrocious in health care(5).

Health care has been mismanaged for many years beginning with the building of the Plains Health Centre(6) in Regina. This centre had to replace the Regina Hospital, instead Regina ended up with three hospitals, and an oversupply of beds. To make things worse, the Plains Health Centre has been a bomb shell since it was built in accordance to the specifications of Saskatchewan Health which included the use of asbestos! At this time, we don't know how many health care workers have contracted cancer because of working for so many years at the Plains Health Centre.

We had an overrun of $50 million for the closure of the Plains Health Centre(7), we could have already spent $40 million for the so called Saskatchewan Health Information Network-SHIN(8), we spent at least 1.5 million for a Telehealth(9) system which was supposed to be operational some years ago and which is not operational at this time, we spent $3.5 million for healthcare payroll(10), we may have spent some $100 million to cope with the Y2K Healthcare Nightmare(11)(12), and so forth. Is healthcare underfunded or it is mismanaged? I tell you that it is mismanaged. And this is because we have a corrupted leadership with a "black and white" museum mentality(13).

After breaking the law for projecting an operational deficit of $9 million(14), the Saskatoon District Health (SDH) is submitting an ultimatum to the Government stating that it will cut services unless it receives cash injections(15). So what's new, the SDH breaks the law, the government issues "unconstitutional" legislation(16), so we are going to have two outlaws settling democratically their differences by negotiations and fooling the public. Individual citizens must comply with the Rule of Law, on the other hand the government, health districts and the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations can break the law. This is democracy in Saskatchewan healthcare, and the result is mismanagement, corruption, and a huge cover up of lies over lies. It is time that such mountain of lies over lies crumbles, therefore, I urge everybody to work for this end, and for the benefit of us all.

Endnotes

1. The Saskatchewan Government and SAHO: Mismanaging Health Care and Blackmailing SUN Nurses, by Mario deSantis, May 7, 1999

2. Healthcare Payroll and SAHO's Big Brains, by Mario deSantis, November 20, 1999

3. Pat Atkinson: blaming the doctors for the deaths of patients, by Mario deSantis, January 17, 2000

4. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Healthcare Reform and New Economic Policies, Part 1. By Mario deSantis, October 14, 1998

5. Nursing shortage predicted, by Bonny Braden, January 20, 2000, The Leader-Post, Regina, Saskatchewan. An excerpt: "...Rosalee Longmoore, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) said: The very first thing that we believe must happen is the workplace needs to be fixed..."

6. Invitation by the Regina Health Board to comment on the Atkinson Report, by Mario deSantis, May 8, 1992 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-Atkinson-may08-92.htm

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

8. A Museum Mentality Is Cheating Our Economy: Healthcare, SHIN and the Synchrotron, by Mario deSantis and reviewed by James deSantis, November 8, 1999

9. Technological changes in Saskatchewan health care: an abysmal disaster, by Mario deSantis, May 27, 1999

10. SAHO Payroll Policies: Saving Money out of Ongoing Catastrophes, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 1999

11. Never enough money for SAHO, by Mario deSantis, March 30, 1999

12. Y2K menu downloads cash crisis: Saskatchewan health districts face $100-million computer upgrade, by Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix of Saskatoon, January 16, 1999

13. The U of S Synchrotron: A Mausoleum for a Museum Mentality, by Mario deSantis, November 16, 1999

14. Refer to the Bill "An Act respecting Health Districts", Section 31(2): "...No statement prepared pursuant to this section is to project an operating deficit unless the district health board obtains the approval of the minister to do so...", Saskatchewan, The Queen's Printer, 1993.

15. Health district ultimatum, by Jason Warick, January 20, 2000, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

16. The Constitutionality of Bill 23 : BackTo Work Legislation Against Saskatchewan Nurses, by Mario deSantis, June 9, 1999