Jim Saunders(3), interim CEO for the Regina district, is a proud copy cat of Brian Rourke(4), board member of the Regina district and chairman of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO), and together they continue to accurately predict the financial future of the Regina's district as they trumpet their studies and news releases down the toilet.

Just listen to this; they go through the study "Evaluation of the System-Wide Admission and Discharge Department (SWADD)(5)" and guess what? They evaluate a system which has not been fully implemented yet. The news release reporting this evaluation study says that the SWADD system helps their clients receive the right services at the right time in the right place, and as I mentioned in previous articles, this is nothing else but management dementia(6).

And the new Regina's three year plan calls for the elimination of 67 nursing positions. The government and all health districts have acknowledged a nursing shortage in Saskatchewan and across Canada. And, at the Regina district, acute beds have been closed because of shortage of nurses, surgeries have been postponed because of shortage of nurses, expensive and debilitating overtime of nursing staff is occurring because of shortage of nurses, New Zealand nurses have been imported as commodities because of shortage of nurses, a $2,000 bonus is being provided to all graduating registered nurses (RNs) who agree to work in this district for at least one year because of a shortage of nurses, and now the Regina district wants to down size the nurses to save money.

Donna Brunskill, executive director of the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association, is right on when she says the evidence shows that

"when you reduce the number of registered nurses -- mortality rates increase, infection rates increase and re-admission rates increase... When you remove the number of RN's or decrease the percentage of RN's - you increase the dependence of clients, and it costs more in the long run"(7).

And we can appreciate the implausible rhetoric of interim CEO Jim Saunders by reading the news release "Regina Health District Releases Financial Plan(8)." I let you, readers, measure the size of this Big Brain by providing you with a sample of Saunders' trumpeting verbosity. He says:

"Since the funding for deficits announced in January is one-time only, we anticipate deficits in the future unless some changes are made to both increase revenues and reduce operating costs... Our challenge remains reaching agreement with the government on predictable levels of adequate and continuing operating funding... With a combination of reduced operating costs and increased government funding, we are confident that we can eliminate the District's operating deficit over a three-year period without compromising either quality of care or reasonable access to health services... Likewise, we want to continue to work with the government to achieve agreement on a multi-year approach to paying down and eliminating both our operating and capital debt... We have the support of government to use a strategy of attrition and redeployment to downsize the number of staff we employ. Any proposed staff changes will be handled with care and sensitivity... We have critical needs in many job categories, including nursing and technical staff, and will continue to recruit vigorously into these positions."

Now we know why we have a health care problem in Saskatchewan and across Canada, don't we?

References/endnotes

Relevant political and economics articles http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign

1. The Regina Health District's 3-Year Financial Plan, February 27, 2001 http://www.reginahealth.sk.ca/district_news/plan.pdf

2. 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 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/desantis94/plainsclosure.html

3. Regina Health District closes one surgical theatre: Shortage of Leadership, Shortage of Nurses and Shortage of Democracy, by Mario deSantis, March 22, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000/desantis144/RHD-Saunders.html

4. Brian Rourke wants more healthcare money: 40% of public expenditures are not enough, by Mario deSantis, November 14, 1999 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/desantis83/Rourke_Nov14-99.html

5. Evaluation of the System-Wide Admission and Discharge Department (SWADD), http://www.reginahealth.sk.ca/district_news/index.html

6. The Reluctance to Change of Our Leadership, by Mario deSantis, November 28, 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2000_200/desantis273/leadership.html

7. Nurse cuts under attack, CBC Saskatchewan, February 27, 2001 http://sask.cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/news/2001/02/27/health010227

8. Regina Health District Releases Financial Plan (February 27, 2001) http://www.reginahealth.sk.ca/district_news/index.html