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I have had some reservations about the writing accountability of Murray Mandryk, but today I have made my opinion, he is a hypocrite. In his article "Where will health-care dialogue end?(1) " he makes reference to Premier Roy Romanow's call for a provincial and national dialogue "about the way that health care and medicare should look into the 21st century." Mandryk states that Premier Romanow would be the best candidate to lead the eventual national dialogue since he is a social democrat politician from the birthplace of medicare. It appears that Mandryk assesses the abilities of people exclusively by the clothes they wear. As I am concerned, an incompetent asset(2) is an incompetent asset no matter the clothes he wears, be a social democrat or otherwise. And as health care and medicare should look into the 21st century, Saskatchewan Health has already pictured its vision based on the disastrous and secretive implementation of the new technologies, the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN) and Telehealth(3).

Premier Romanow wants a dialogue, but does he know what a dialogue is? If I refer to his past performance as an uncostitutional premier(4) I must say that he doesn't know what a dialogue is. A dialogue is only a dialogue if all the participants are able to express their feelings and their understandings, and if all the participants are able to reach a higher level of understanding and transform themselves in reaching a shared understanding. Our leadership doesn't know what a dialogue is, what they know is just to push through their own agendas, to use the so called specialists to solve problems(5), and then, when a convoluted mess is created such as the one in health care they become democratic and say "here we are, we are going to have a dialogue with our public, tell us what to do, we are going to listen to you and we are going to do what you want"

This is democracy for Premier Romanow, a democracy which arises from the failures of a health care system he has created himself, a system which is failing all over Canada for the specific reason that it is mismanaged by our politicians(6), by our reductionist researchers(7), by our health economists(8), by our political scientists(9), by our health care associations(10), by any other spin-doctor. Have you ever heard of any medical doctor or of any nurse being involved in health reform? No, they have been excluded purposely from health reform; the doctors have been excluded since they have been perceived as the creators of health care misspending, the nurses have been excluded since they work closely to their patients and therefore they cannot understand double entry accounting.

Certainly we need a dialogue, but we don't need a dialogue set up by either Premier Romanow or Minister of Health, Pat Atkinson. The Saskatchewan Party has been calling for a complete, independent and immediate value-for-money-audit of the health care system for two years. And we don't need this value-for-money-audit either for finding out what is wrong in our health care system. Ernst & Young stated that the development of the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN) would result in saving of at least $58 million per year(11), well, what happened to SHIN and the bean counters? SHIN has been a complete disaster, and the bean counters are still counting their money in the bank.

I tell you what is wrong in the health care system to day. It is not the public or private health care issue, it is not the charging of user fees, it is not the de-listing of services such as ultrasound and MRI, the primary problem of the failing health care system is that it is corrupted and therefore mismanaged.

I am going to give you two examples of health care corruption in Saskatchewan. In Saskatchewan, the Districts Health Act was created to establish independent health care districts and give back the management of health care to the people and their communities. The districts were created, but the districts became puppets of the government and puppets of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO). The government, the districts, and SAHO, they all are corrupted and they have been breaking the law(12)(13) all along just for the simple reason that the districts have never been independent agencies(14) as asked by the District Health Act.

The other example refers to a situation where a Labour Relations Consultant with SAHO physically participated in the wrongful dismissal of a management employee at a health district(15). This management employee was dismissed without forewarning, was told that the position was eliminated immediately because of health reform, and was told to vacate the premises. The saga of this corrupted behaviour of SAHO is not unique, and it is repeated as these labour relations consultants behave like hoodlums in assisting the districts in the hiring, harassing and firing of management people. This is happening in my district, in your district, in everybody's district and therefore we continue to suffer the anxieties that our family's members may become, once again, the victims of these health care hoodlums.

We don't need a dialogue on health care at this time Premier Romanow. What we need today is the independence of the districts and the booting out of the hoodlums working for SAHO or for any other health care agency.

Endnotes

Quote by Donella Meadows "challenging a paradigm is not a part-time job. It is not sufficient to make your point once and then blame the world for not getting it. The world has a vested interest in, a commitment to, not getting it. The point has to be made patiently and repeatedly, day after day after day" ftp://sysdyn.mit.edu/ftp/sdep/Roadmaps/RM1/D-4143-1.pdf http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pcdf/meadows/default.htm

General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by North Central Internet News

1. Where will health-care dialogue end? By Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post, April 5, 2000, Regina, Saskatchewan

2. INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL, by Thomas Stewart, Doubleday, 1997

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

4. Premier Romanow: Reinventing The Rule Of Law And Becoming Above The Law, by Mario deSantis, September 2, 1999 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-ReinvenLaw-Sept02-99.htm

5. The Big Question for Saskatchewan Health Care: Underfunding or Mismanagement? By Mario deSantis, March 3, 2000

6. Honourable Pat Atkinson: Spending More Money and Running for the Laurel of "Saviour of Medicare" by Mario deSantis, March 23, 2000

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

8. A Partial Diagnosis of Health Care Corruption: The Quality Circle of the Big Brains Includes Our Renown Health Economists, by Mario deSantis, March 9, 2000

9. Dr. Dan de Vlieger is Past President of the Health Services Utilization and Research Commission (HSURC) of Saskatchewan. Dr. de Vlieger is Professor of Political Science, University of Regina and Past President, Canadian Health Care Association. Dr. de Vlieger has been involved in health care for the last some 30 years. http://www.sdh.sk.ca/hsurc/board.htm

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

11. A Historical Perspective of The Saskatchewan Health Information Network, by Mario deSantis and James deSantis, March 1998 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-SHIN.htm

12. Saskatchewan Healthcare: Breaking the Law & Mismanagement, by Mario deSantis, January 20, 2000

13. NEED OF TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGES IN SASKATCHEWAN: Healthcare Reform and New Economic Policies, Part 3. Is the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) above the Law? By Mario deSantis, October 29, 1998

14. North East Health District: the Closure of Carrot River Hospital and Telehealth, by Mario deSantis, March 9, 2000

15. The documentation of SAHO's labour relations consultants behaving as hoodlums is kept confidential at this time of writing.