This is recent history from the Detailed Commentary Page. Site Index Sask Health Gaffe's Home Index  Commentary by Greaner Politickle Page               Since the Healthcare issues are likely to be spaced further apart in the near future, the new politickle page project may "tickle" your fancy? Check out the new Politickle Page   Please find the history archive just below here.     2000 - Jan - Feb - March - May - June - July - August - Sept - Oct - Nov - Dec   December 13 2000 As Christmas approaches we see more and more clearly the year past as well as the near future coming with the new year. Even plans for "resolutions" may be in the making. So it is today that I plan to comment on ideas. Ideas are usually simple and based on experience and observation. They are actually "learning" manifested in suggestion or direct action directed toward improvement. It's seems almost unbelievable that the NDP government could be short of ideas in this day and age! Yet we see healthcare as the most inefficient in the nation. Why we ask ourselves is this the case? Lets consider who is the most likely to have an idea. - It would be the person/s who encounter a problem while doing the work. In this case healthcare work and healthcare workers. Lets suppose a healthcare worker encountered a problem situation and suddenly had an idea that would completely solve the problem so that it would never happen again, time and money would be saved and the quality of patient care would rise accordingly. That healthcare worker would almost certainly check out the idea with one or more peers to make sure their thinking was correct and that nothing had been overlooked. This would probably happen at coffee break or lunch time, or maybe at a union meeting or just at a casual encounter outside the workplace. The idea would grow as additional people became aware of it. The idea would take shape as perhaps more and more benefits were realized. Finally someone will say "lets do it!". Then the fun starts. The real workers have to make a decision. Can they just do it? or do they have to persuade a "manager/boss/CEO/coordinator" that it is good enough idea as well? Of course we know that managers and bosses spend their time coordinating, organizing, delegating, reporting, studying, analyzing, networking, interfacing, planning, detailing, budgeting, delineating, defining or otherwise making determinations that seldom have anything to do with solving the "hands on" delivery of healthcare. Since the managers are so busy with all of the above we regrettably find that literally, volumes of really good, sound, practical ideas perish between the lunch room and the patients room. Along with the demise of every good idea goes the opportunity for moral to be boosted, just a little bit and for life to be just a bit easier for all concerned with healthcare including managers and CEO's. So just in case anyone might think in reading this collection of criticisms and complaints that I never have anything constructive to say. . I say PAY ATTENTION! There are plenty of good ideas around but of course it has become increasingly obvious that healthcare managers and the NDP won't hear them while waiting their office for a 2 million dollar study to be completed.  (A study that will predictably be a rehash, rework, review, renew and repeat of every other study and information gathering failure that has gone before.) The ideas are in the hallway, at the nurses station, in the elevator, the lunch room or wherever the people that really do the work and encounter the problems, happen to meet.   December 8 2000 This from the Star Phoenix this date. .. snip> Nursing shortage delays care Man with broken leg forced to wait 20 hours for bed, health officials say By Betty Ann Adam Sick and injured people are waiting for hospital care in Saskatoon as beds sit vacant because there are no nurses to staff them, says a vice-president with Saskatoon District Health (SDH). A Saskatoon man with a broken leg who waited more than 20 hours for a bed at Royal University Hospital, is just one of many examples of delayed treatment caused by the nursing shortage, said Sandra Blevins. Callin Goebel, 26, arrived at the RUH emergency ward around 9:30 p.m. Sunday. Goebel said Thursday he was promptly seen by a doctor in the emergency ward, but then waited on a gurney in the ER and in the hallway until 6 p.m. the next day, when a bed was finally available for him in one of the wards. Blevins said Thursday that hospitals are operating fewer beds than needed because there aren't enough nurses to staff them. When all of the beds in the wards are full, patients from the emergency wards must wait there until someone is discharged and the bed is cleaned. Sick patients in the community are also in the queue waiting to be admitted. The length of time a person waits for care depends on how many more serious cases are ahead of them and how many nurses are available, Blevins said. "You could walk by an empty bed or half a unit that is closed and that's only because we're not able to staff those beds," Blevins said. "We were able to open up a stretch of beds and bring in staff at overtime, but we were only able to sustain it this week for a 24 hour period. We'll try to do it again as soon as we can get the staff rounded up to do it, but right now staff are working huge amounts of overtime." Blevins could not say exactly how many vacant nursing positions there are in Saskatoon or how many beds are closed due to the shortage, because the numbers change constantly depending on whether individuals will work overtime, are sick or are changing jobs. "We're in such a crunch for nursing staff. . . . It honestly is changing every day and every shift. That's how fluid the system is right now. "We sat down (Wednesday) and talked about two retirements that are going to happen this week. That's going to shut down beds until we can get them staffed up again, it's that volatile," she said. It's a problem that can only be solved with the co-operation of managers and administrators who have the power to improve the working conditions of nurses, said Rosalee Longmoore, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses. "If we just have better communication between nursing managers and workers, communication that lets them know that every level of a district appreciates the work that they're doing and the sacrifices and the overtime that they're putting in. Therefore, when they ask for a family leave day to attend a child's Christmas concert they don't have to work tooth and nail to get it, be denied it, and file a grievance. "People would be a lot more willing to work the overtime and give that extra mile that nurses do every day if there was some recognition on an ongoing basis by all levels of government and district." Longmoore estimates nursing vacancies number in the "dozens." As a board member of the Canadian Federation of Nurses' Unions, Longmoore hears of the same problems across Canada. "Most emergency wards across the country are exactly the same."<end snip OK!  Its just wonderful that the media and the SUN President have brought this item to the attention of the public. A couple of clarifications seem to be required just for accuracy's sake.   Looking up we see "Longmoore estimates nursing vacancies number in the dozens". Well lets make sure that people realize that the so called dozens of vacancies are province wide and really mean dozens per area, department, service or facility! This of course translates into dozens of dozens province wide.   We also see "Blevins said Thursday that hospitals are operating fewer beds than needed because there aren't enough nurses to staff them". This is clearly the case throughout Saskatchewan and is clearly an unacceptable way of providing healthcare. No service or business can operate at 100% capacity without sacrificing quality or failing to meet increased need. Without question the small cushion of extra staff and beds that existed prior to the closing of the Plains Health Center and many of the rural facilities was not so much a cushion as a necessity.   One item that was not mentioned at all but only touched upon was the impact of losing just two staff to retirement. It has been mentioned here before and warrants it again_perhaps as many as 50% of full time RN's have weeks and months of holidays and banked time that they have been unable to use. Of course given this time off, we shall see the ("right now staff are working huge amounts of overtime.") vicious circle of overtime rear its ugly head as only a few in the upper echelons of management can even imagine! Having said all that it is the focus of healthcare that must change in this province and perhaps across the country as well. Until the NDP quest for the best and highest quality of healthcare is replaced with a quest for the best and highest quality working environment for healthcare providers, healthcare will flounder and the vicious circle of waste and inefficiency will increase to the point where a greater and greater degree of patient safety will be sacrificed in the name of a more and more efficient system! As it stands now the hardest hit are probably our Senior population in need of orthopedic surgery as this service overlaps with emergency service for operating room time. We have also seen pediatric specialists shut out of their own practice for the same reason. Certainly the Health Minister cannot intervene every time there is a crisis and ultimatum situation. For this reason we can expect to see another and then another segment of our society shut out of timely and reasonable healthcare. Who will it be next? The mentally ill, those in need of drug and alcohol treatment and councelling, the poorest of all social assistance recipients, visible minorities to greater extent than they are already or perhaps the rural or northern residents. The writing is on the wall and the NDP and Mr. Fyke expect to be studying the situation until spring! What is truly the greatest disappointment? That they are unwilling to act or that they are unwilling to admit it?   November 06 2000 snip> Cut health districts, public tells head of medicare forum<endsnip So read the headline in the Star Phoenix Monday, Nov 06 2000. How curious is it that the so called public are publicly telling Mr.Fyke and his one man NDP commission on medicare exactly what the NDP have been wanting to hear and do?   cut health districts introduce user fees create a medical phone line to keep people out of emergency rooms Just as curious as it is that seating was limited at these so called public forums and not all interested parties would be invited. I am making a cynical guess that the invitations were carefully screened and according to the same SP article  snip>. .some members of the Saskatoon group criticized the absence of an aboriginal perspective in the public meetings.<endsnip the natives were not invited! I am also guessing the cynical were not invited either.   Update - November 30 2000 You can’t eliminate half the nursing staff at the Wascana Rehabilation Centre and say that residents won’t be negatively affected." This from the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses web page - News Check it out!   November 23 2000 Florence Nightingale doesn't get much press anymore when it comes to nursing and healthcare. Although occasionally we hear vague references to nurses and healthcare professionals who are dedicated, caring and giving beyond the call of duty. Recently it came to the attention of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses that the Regina Health District was up to its old tricks of reorganizing/renewing/revamping/shuffling/delaying/laying-off nurses and nursing positions in the name of efficiency and cost saving. Oddly enough no one had bothered to consult with the SUN about these so called plans even though SUN is and should be recognized as the primary source of knowledge and information regarding healthcare issues, particularly as they relate to nursing. Fearing the worst, with good reason, SUN chose to call attention to this issue by refusing to grant the recently employed nurses from New Zealand the required paper work that would allow them to continue to work here in Saskatchewan. IT WORKED! In the Leader Post today (PAGE ONE) we find an article with some very interesting details of the so called plans for efficiency. It would seem that the Ministers office is attempting to kill two birds with one stone.   Apparently Registered Nurses who have been working in long term care at the Wascana Rehabilitation Hospital are to be deleted!   Those cranky Licensed Practical Nurses who (used to be Nurses Aides) have been whining about not having enough responsibility or not being allowed to do what they were trained for are to be entrusted with a greater degree of ongoing care of the Wascana Hospital Clients! This great except for two things: If you are a resident or client of the Wascana Hospital you are to receive significantly less qualified care!  Arguments will be made that LPN'S are adequately trained and arguments will be made that they will still be overseen by an RN, but the truth of it cannot be argued and that is that care will be provided by significantly less qualified people!   Should you happen to be a member of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses and obviously an RN who has devoted your career to long term rehab clients, you are for all intents and purposes being fired from your job of choice! As wonderfully responsible as our esteemed Minister of Health Atkinson may sound to the uninformed when she claims that ". .no nurses will be without a job . . " the fact remains that Registered Nurses don't just 'CHANGE PORTFOLIOS' as do Members of Government. On the contrary, when a nurse begins work in new discipline, field or area, they as professionals have to actually know what they are doing or someone dies! (and there is a big lawsuit!) Obviously the Wascana Rehab RN's who might be anxious to change jobs for a move into acute care have no obstacles whatsoever as every area in healthcare remains short staffed. The Health Ministers intention is to encourage them to change jobs by eliminating their existing jobs behind their backs! No wonder nurses are leaving the profession and the province after years and years of this kind of manipulation, neglect and mismanagement!   Congratulations to the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses for remaining vigilant and proactive as the existing NDP government pretends to be making healthcare better by failing to consult with healthcare workers about plans to significantly alter the landscape of delivering services. Congratulations to the media's, television, radio and newspapers for continuing to demonstrate an inability to make an even half-hearted attempt to provide Saskatchewan citizens with even a minimally adequate picture of this issue. Congratulations to all the fine citizens and NDP'ers who may have been quick to assign blame to the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses without having any information to base an opinion on except that of what often seems to be an NDP funded media!  NOT! I say, never forget that the SUN nurses have done more for this province than any other individual, group or organization as they risked their livelihoods and their freedom to expose the NDP and their policies for what they were, and as it turns out, for what they continue to be! Rumour has it that the Regina Health District alone has a plan in place to displace 175 RN's through layoff. Coincidentally when one does the math based on $45,000 annual salary per nurse we can see almost a 10 million dollar value in these numbers. Was it not just a short time ago that major players were hired with the sole intention of reducing the Regina Health District budget by 30 million. Pretty original idea!  Layoffs!  Disguised as reorganizing/restructuring and replacement of RN's with LPN's! November 20 2000 What is really wrong with all the political posturing, hype and rhetoric as it applies to medicare and the province and Ottawa? We keep hearing statements about 2 tiers, quality and universality. The problem is that none of the statements, claims or intentions have anything to do with getting attention when one is ill or injured! The problem has become one of access. Not that there is a shortage of rhetoric aimed directly at access, but there is a problem with understanding access. As an example lets use senior citizens (although youth, or women or just about any group would offer similar circumstances). The wellness of seniors has been foremost in recent years as seniors have been increasing in numbers as well as awareness. Every effort has been made to involve seniors in current trends in activities and lifestyle. We see seniors at the fitness centers, the leisure centers, the seniors centers, bowling, curling, dancing, playing bridge and generally living retirement to the fullest measure. Seniors have been inundated with programs, educational opportunities, classes and many commercial and social endeavours. Should a senior lose some of their health and ability to live their life to an ideal level there remains a myriad of opportunities. nursing homes personal care homes home care special care homes mobility aids respiratory equipment needs and income bases fees As wonderful as this sounds, any senior in needs of knee or hip surgery can receive a 'mobility aid', i.e. wheel chair;walker;crutches and so forth will need those items for over a year! A year or more while waiting for surgery in order that they might return to living their life to the fullest. A year or more while their condition continues to place a drain in the system in the form of some kind of home care, nursing intervention and medication expense both to themselves and the system. A year or more while their condition deteriorates to a point where they may never return to living life to the fullest and to where the expense is compounded doubly or triple beyond what it ought have been with "timely" medical intervention.  How will any government advance healthcare in this province and country to the point where ordinary Canadian citizens will be able to clearly see that the "system" has managed to "catch up"? How will operating rooms and surgeons that are full to capacity just doing emergency and critical work ever find the resources to "get ahead"? Some day, some government will need to make a plan that sacrifices some of that high and mighty, high quality, premium healthcare that previous governments have been so pleased to brag about and then they will have to plan to provide high volume basic healthcare! The problem of course has never been quality, it has been volume! The health districts are trying to increase the volume of traffic through the facilities but they are doing it at the expense of safety. They continue to spend copious amounts of money on very low return, quality/wellness programs in addition to even more copious amounts of money on administrators and managers of these so called wellness programs. Those people waiting for knee surgery year after year don't give a damn about fitness videos for seniors or diet planning for pregnant high school teens.  They just want to be able to get from the bedroom to the bathroom, and the kitchen to the living room for a few more years before they die! When the members of the public talk about cutting the fat, they only see the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of programs that can be considered nothing but extravagant in these times of limited access to basic care. Who among our leaders is prepared to sacrifice the high and mighty ideal of champagne and caviar healthcare and get back to a functional and healthy, meat and potatoes system where there is enough to go around for everyone! November 02 2000 Here's a coincidence! The recent turnaround of neurosurgeon Dr. Griebel and his intended resignation and departure represents more than one coincidence.   First of all can we now assume that the squeaky wheel truly gets the grease just before an NDP leadership race? Can we now assume that all physicians can expect an 8% raise and an extra measure of support from Sask Health in bolstering up their flagging specialty? Can it truly be coincidence that it was an 8% raise in pay that made the difference as to whether or not this fine surgeon stayed or left? Can it be more than coincidence that the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses had asked for, and illegally went on strike for, just 8% more than the 13. something % that the NDP government was finally shamed into giving them? Can we logically assume therefore that Saskatchewan Health Districts province wide would have recruited and retained Registered Nurses to a greatly significant degree, had they just paid them the extra 8% they asked for and deserved? Can we also assume that much of the cost of this deserved 8% could have been found in an "astronomical overtime budget" that continues to be underestimated year after under funded year? I seem to recall that all of the nurses, altogether went on strike for about an 80 million dollar raise overall. The government chose to treat them like criminals and was finally shamed into giving them about 50 million (approx.). For a mere 25 or 30 million Saskatchewan could have had the best recruitment and retainment in the Nation! Oh no! Remember the "back to work legislation"? This Saskatchewan NDP government set a national and provincial record for the fastest labour breaking back to work legislation in history! NO ONE! NOT ANYONE OR  ANY GROUP could do worse! (in my humble opinion). Yet this same NDP government and health minister can brag about their own hypocritical action in raising the remuneration and support for the Saskatoon Health District neurosurgical department! The best response the government can give to the other health districts is that they are taking a survey to see what the voters of this province think would be a good idea for healthcare and medicare. This page will have something to say about the so called survey very soon, just as a comment was forthcoming when the last lame duck survey was taken here. Oct 27 2000 Medisolutions On September 10 2000 Mr. Jim Ramsey offered to update the inquiry made by Mario DeSantis who frequently presents articles and viewpoints at the Ensign (North Central Internet News). No such update or explanation of how a health software provider such as Medisolutions can operate in the Saskatchewan climate of SHIN and SAHO and the NDP privacy legislation that has failed to materialize for over two years now, has been forthcoming.. The excerpt below frightens this writer and should alert every Saskatchewan citizen as to the level of disregard the NDP have for our provinces ill and injured. Just read it! snip> CONFIDENTIALITY                        All site users agree that any material or information transmitted through this site becomes the property of MEDISOLUTION and consent to MEDISOLUTION’s use of said information.  Please note that any information or material sent to MEDISOLUTION will be considered NON-CONFIDENTIAL.  In sending any information or material to MEDISOLUTION, you grant MEDISOLUTION the unlimited, irrevocable right to use,reproduce, display, run, modify, transmit and distribute such material or information. MEDISOLUTION agrees to not intentionally use user’s name or contact information without user’s consent, unless otherwise indicated. The Internet is not a secure medium and as a result, privacy cannot be guarenteed.  MEDISOLUTION shall not be liable for any damages suffered directly or undirectly, as a result of the transmission of confidential information.<end snip This item can be found by clicking on the tiny little "legal" text at the bottom of the Medisolutions Home Page. Medisolutions does seem like a real piece of work after reading the fine print and wondering who among the ill and injured will be bothered to read it as they check in for needed treatment. It seems that the NDP is hoping the ill and injured will be so glad to save a few dollars for healthcare that they won't mind giving up their privacy and confidentiality and just maybe the healthcare system can sell some of that private and confidential information for research and make some more cash to boot! Having spent a minimum of $40 million dollars on SHIN the NDP ought to be shamed into resigning over this gaffe. Oh wait! Roy and Dwain already bailed! Who really has the responsibility for privacy legislation? The really big wheels or Patty and Judy? How come Mr. Ramsey neglected to follow up on a concern that was explicit from Mr. DeSantis? Ladies and gentlemen, there are almost certainly more private and confidential little secrets concerning this and healthcare legislation than we the lowly private citizen may ever know! Check it out with the ministers office why don't ya?   Oct 23 2000 It seems to have been an incredibly busy time on both the healthcare front as well as the political front in general. We have; physicians stampeding from the province nurses being ground down into stress leave and sick time resulting tremendous overtime numbers and a vicious circle of more stress and sick time waiting lists growing longer hospitals, emergency rooms and operating rooms bursting at the seams with the critically ill, leaving no room for elective surgery at all  nursing students from here in Saskatchewan are being wooed away by jurisdictions willing and able to pay them what they are worth Study after study after expensive study since Louise Simard first implemented a fruitless venture in 1995 to the 2 million dollar waste-of-time Fyke adventure currently meant to distract us all At the same time we have; A Premier bailing out of his elected responsibility At least several factions of the NDP party devoted to assuming the party leadership at once A key minister bailing out of his elected responsibility for greener pastures in Alberta resulting in an expensive and distracting by-election A half hearted lobby for more Federal dollars for the provinces just prior to an early Federal Election Call Lets review all this activity and see just how many direct improvements to healthcare have occurred. More money from the Feds looks like an improvement but it's not; it's just money they took away from before; we are still tens of millions behind where we had planned to be! Who should we vote for in the Federal election? The ones who wiped out the Crow Freight Rate devastating the agricultural community or the ones who devastated Federal Transfers payments for Healthcare for the Provinces? That would be the Federal Liberals on both counts! If you want more of the same just be prepared to take the blame yourself! What else have we got that has improved healthcare? NOTHING! Can't we get rid of the Saskatchewan NDP in each and every by-election that comes up? Voters, citizens, people of Saskatchewan, now would be a good time to call the Saskatchewan Party Office or your MLA and ask them to send someone over with a membership book. For the price of a $10.00 membership you can help the Saskatchewan Party make the beginning it needs to make to finally get rid of the NDP next time around. Do it now!  (This message is in no way associated with the Saskatchewan Party. It is strictly the opinion of this writer) Should the NDP approach to running the province be allowed to continue we may certainly expect to see weeks and months turn into years and decades of decay and deterioration of our once proud and successful province. They will call it renewal and maintenance of medicare and the high principles of obscure days long gone by. Oct 06 2000 An unbelievable day today! Worse than my headshakin' day over at the Political Page. Axworthy steps up to the trough designated "Premiers only" and claims he will be getting rid of the health districts if the NDP faithful choose him for leader. Lorne Calvert has also stepped up to the same trough having been employed recently as Roy Romanows advisor. Even worse and more to the point of this Healthgaffes page is the recent news that Mr. Ken Fyke is heading up Saskatchewans current mega-investigation of healthcare/medicare! The NDP have thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars at Mr. Fyke for over 20 years. When can we say enough is enough! When will anyone notice that Mr. Fyke has been around for the steady 20 year decline into ruin of our healthcare system! (Perhaps some university graduates with no experience at making mega blunders will available in the spring.) When will anyone notice that the NDP applicant for leader, Axworthy, claims he has already decided that the health districts are to be eliminated even as that same NDP government is paying Mr. Fyke to examine/study/consult/recommend/propose changes to the system! It looks to me like the same old case of politicians hiring people who will just go through the motions and then recommend whatever is politically expedient afterward. Which brings me to Mr. Calvert, former adviser to Mr. Romanow after he left his elected position. Lets just see the NDP faithful choose Mr. Calvert for party leader and Premier and faster than the eye can blink we will see Mr. Romanow return to the public trough as "advisor to the Premier", since there will be a vacancy created by Mr. Calvert leaving! Having seen the trough positioned right out in the open in the middle of the pen there is one profound certainty that can be observed when the swine come out to feed. ... they don't care which side of the trough they stick their snouts into as long as they get as much of the swill in as short a time as possible. Oct 04 2000 Just a bit late with this update. The powers that are finally got around to 'rubber stamping' the tentative agreement as they should have done in a timely fashion. Sept 11 2000 As an add-in to the original comment below . . This date the Blood Services Union reached a tentative agreement according the LP. We will see how it turns out. Interesting too, how quickly this was settled as the teachers have begun to do their thing just now. Sept 06 2000 The Leader Post actually mentioned the Canadian Blood Services Nurses this date and their ongoing battle to receive wages and benefits equal to other Provincially employed SUN nurses. This failure on the part of Canadian Blood Services to provide a contract and money to the 'blood services employees' is just a ridiculous waste of time. There is no question of any sort in regard to this matter. SUN obtained a contract from the provincial government and all other members are entitled to parity. It's that simple. So what's the hold up? This has been going on for months and months. I was just tiny bit surprised upon visiting the Blood Services site to find a familiar name in the place of BOARD CHAIR! MR. KEN FYKE!  The NDP MASTER of delay, stall, put off, postpone and self serve. I mentioned Mr. Fyke right here on June 15 2000. (See history) This would be the man who acquired 2 million dollars from the NDP to supposedly find out what is wrong with our Saskatchewan Health Care System. This is also the same man who may have masterminded the closing of the Plains Health Center. Now we learn that he is, and has been, a major player in the refusal of Canadian Blood Services to provide their SUN employed Registered Nurses with wage parity to all other Saskatchewan Nurses. Just as a virus seems to infect person after person as it manages to travel from one to another so do ideas and methodology infect individuals, groups and communities of people. Make no mistake voters and germs. Mr. Fyke is a carrier and his methodology, ideas and approach is infecting our healthcare system as it exists today. Regrettably our healthcare system is not being treated for this disease that is infecting it. The possibility of a cure being found for our healthcare system seems to moving further and further into the future on a daily basis. Just as the time passes for the Blood Services Nurses without a contract, so does the time pass for the improvement of our healthcare system. Just as Mr. Fyke continues on with his NDP mission of delaying, postponing and putting off, so does the time when we might look forward to an improvement in healthcare for the ordinary Canadian, the ordinary Saskatchewan resident and the ordinary Healthcare Employee - Registered Nurse in particular. August 27 2000 Here's a good idea! Lets change the telephone system for the patients in the Regina General Hospital. While we are at it lets change the TV's too. In fact lets put the new phones right on the TV's! Why will this be a good idea you ask? Well we can make a fortune off the ill and injured. Yes it's true folks, rumour has it that the changes to the phone system at the RGH are upon us. Yes it's true you will have a TV in your face if you want to make a phone call while in the hospital. (That's assuming you can afford the $3.00 hookup fee, and the $3.00 dollar a day fee plus GST!) A big factor in deciding whether or not to get a phone hooked up will be if you are physically well enough to manipulate that TV 'arm' over to the bedside and keep it from wandering away while you try to dial or hang up the phone. Are 'large number' and 'volume control' units still going to be available? Lets hope so or it will be back to the drawing board at the health districts expense. Lets say your relatives from a neighbouring province or country phone the hospital and even get through to your unit to see how you are and perhaps to make important arrangements. Until this big improvement in the phone system the nursing station could just 'transfer a call in' to the phone in the room whether it was officially hooked up or not, so that patients could take care of business. A definite aid in the healing process by reducing the stress of being located in the hospital. NO MORE! If patients want to take care of business now they better plan on doing it after hooking up the, $6.00 plus gst, phone that first day! NO MORE transfers in to the new TV phones from anywhere. The health district wants your money especially if you are sick; it might be the last chance they have to get it from you. Can the new TV phones be turned off during times of treatments, visitors, no visitors etc. or will the nurses have to tie a pillow around the TV to keep them from disturbing the patients? No one seems to know for certain what the new phones will bring in this area. One thing is for sure though; if an important call comes in from out of province from a dying patients relatives the nurses will attend to matter. They will load that patient up in a wheel chair along with all their intravenous and equipment or they will wheel the entire bed out to the nurses station so that patient can have a few last words with their loved ones. The nurse may even find a way for some privacy to occur at the nurses station during these times. We all know the nurses have nothing better to do than to try and compensate for the many uncaring, un-informed and anti-patient centered decisions that seem to stream incessantly down from the euphoric and oblivious in every level of management!    August 26 2000 On July 02 2000 I wrote here that the Regina Health District would be hard pressed to keep 114 beds closed for the summer months even though this was the only way RN's would receive their much needed and much deserved holidays. According to all reports they have managed; give or take a bed or two. This amounts to nothing short of a miracle in my humble opinion. Sure there are basically no beds to be had at any given time. Sure staff are stretched to the limit and beds and patients are being juggled like so many bowling pins. Sure waiting lists are growing instead of shrinking. Hmmmm suddenly closing 114 beds doesn't sound like such a great accomplishment, but it has happened with a seeming minimal impact on the overall care offered in the district. Some members of the team have pulled incredible weight this summer. Lets hope management appreciates them as much as the patients whose lives were saved. . some more than once. and lets remember that I am giving credit for a task accomplished in spite of certain negative overtones to the whole situation I am impressed.       August 12 2000 The DOCTOR ON CALL was delayed due to airline problems! Let's make sure we have this situation crystal clear in our minds. A youth from northern (central) Saskatchewan develops appendicitis and his parents fail to find a surgeon at Melfort or Prince Albert who is capable of performing a simple appendectomy. They end up in Saskatoon over 11 hours later. The DOCTOR ON CALL is just not in the province or possibly the country as his flight is delayed from South Africa. This would mean for all intents and purposes that there was NO DOCTOR ON CALL! Were a Registered Nurse on duty or ON CALL and their replacement/relief failed to show up, they would be (and are presently) legally bound by law to remain on duty until arrangements can be made and implemented for a replacement. This would seem to be a reasonable and responsible situation that has been created in order to safeguard the patient at all times. Does it not seem odd that no such law or rule or procedure or policy exists for SURGEONS ON CALL? Of course it is odd! The real problem of course is not that stupidity such as this exists under the great guiding light of the NDP Wellness Model of Perfect Healthcare but that ASSociate Health Minister Judy Junor has presumed that no one will notice it as long as she tells the media that "things are getting better" in the health districts. ( These would be the same health districts that will no doubt be taking the blame by tomorrow for this incredible piece of mismanagement) There is no excuse for this to have occurred. There is no excuse for the physicians involved or the college of medicine. There is no excuse for the health district management personal or for those highly paid appointees at the board and CEO level. There is no excuse to be found in the Ministers Office either. This is yet another example of yet another disgraceful and potentially fatal piece of NDP incompetence in the operation of the broken down and neglected vehicle intended for the delivery of healthcare! July 24 2000 Just a quick add-in for today. The NDP Gov't News Release/Propaganda Page released this page on July 19 2000. Oddly enough the news release of July 19 has this - snip>"What we are doing is redirecting nurses to where they are needed most. Nursing positions are vacant in areas such as dialysis units,<end snip on just the day after my comment. Oddly enough my July 18 comment below, uses the desperate situation of the dialysis units as an example. hmmm  Maybe "big brother" has been reading my itty bitty comments?     July 18 2000 OK Even the Saskatchewan Party has missed the boat on the latest healthcare layoff issue. I on the other hand have stated that the NDP/Liberal gov't is just going through the motions of doing something when in fact they only seek news coverage as a smokescreen for the great void they have created in productivity in Minister Atkinson's office. ( See June 26 2000 in the 'history' page. Passive entertainment. The NDP are closing beds! These are beds that have no sick people in them mainly because there are no nurses to attend to any sick who might have the beds! The NDP are eliminating nursing positions! These are nursing positions that cannot be filled. They have been posted and reposted and no one is available to work in these positions. The NDP are simply re-shuffling the paper in the hope that the voters will come to believe that something good has been done. As an example of vacant nursing positions I have it second hand that the Regina Health District has repeatedly posted as many as six Hemodialysis permanent nursing positions without a response. Staff presently working in this service are repeatedly called upon to work continuously without regular days off in addition to remaining from 7 AM until nearly midnight! Soon there will be more vacancies in this area because the existing staff will choose to resign rather than continue with unsafe and unreasonable demands by the employer who has failed and is failing to provide healthcare for the ill or a healthy workplace for caregivers! Don't be fooled - the NDP are making it worse, it's not just getting worse by itself! How are they doing this? They are failing to use common sense, the brains that God gave them as well as the many good resources that they do have at their disposal. They have opted instead for expensive studies aimed at improving their position in the polls and their appearance in the media. July 2 2000 Who really expects the Regina Health District to close 114 beds? They couldn't manage a plan for staff to have Christmas holidays and yet they have announced summer holidays for the staff by way of these 114 bed closures. Correct me if I am wrong but the hospitals are full! This prior to bed closures. Here's a prediction - Beds will close; then they will open. Staff will go on holidays - Other staff will work tremendous overtime hours resulting in mega-overtime being paid out and of course then the health minister. .  The Honourable Pat Atkinson will be give voice to her usual comment" I don't know how this could have come about! But I will be looking into it and making a plan very soon!" Lets not forget that the so called reduction in ancillary staff has only just begun as well so other dept. besides nursing will be racking up the OT too! Oh and "A joyous and proud Canada Day to all!" Late - Bah humbug. Its a great place to live but not so great to be ill or injured. June 26 2000 Well, well.  Just when you may have thought that healthcare was moving along slowly but surely I have come along to tell you that what we see happening of late has been "passive entertainment". Like TV, or sitting and watching a sporting event played by professional althletes. The layoffs of ancillary staff are upon us. Housekeeping, dietary, security and maintenance will have to carry on with the 'fat' trimmed away. What this really means is that overtime will increase just as it did when the 'fat' was trimmed away from the nursing staff just a few short years ago by this NDP government. This is just one thing on a list of many non-events that have occurred at the hands on the NDP meant to offer the voting public an ILLUSION of PROGRESS. Lets review: CEO's move on and are replaced Board members are shuffled, eliminated or replaced. A study is done by a man who ends up recommending himself for a long term job implimenting the findings of his own study. Louise Simard is hired. The annual report 'promised' at election time is unfortunately delayed until after the legislature is finished for this session. A man with great experience is hired to spend TWO MILLION DOLLARS on yet another study! In this way the NDP and the bandaid queen, Patch Actionson try to patch up the sorry performance they have provided Saskatchewan residents with in the name of the WELLNESS MODEL over the last 10 years. Were it not for the long list of physicians, nurses and other diciplines leaving in droves for Alberta and the USA some might mistake this ILLUSION for progress of some sort or other! June 15 2000 Once again I have found an item that warrants space here on the opening page of the Healthgaffes. Not the NEW REVIEW, but the HEAD of the NEW REVIEW. Mr. Ken Fyke. Who is Mr. Ken Fyke? It is said that he is an expert of vast experience. Former deputy health minister of two provinces no less. Currently he has been blessed with single handed control of 2 MILLION DOLLARS in order to help the NDP come up with a plan that they will no doubt entitle: THE WELLNESS MODEL - A SEQUEL! I am concerned with the single mention I heard on TV that it was Mr. Fyke who oversaw (masterminded?) the closing of the Plains Health Center. Yikes!!!  Is this true? Perhaps I ought be more optimistic like Premier Roy or Patch Actionson but I fear that we will see this 2 MILLION DOLLAR REVIEW turn into a money pit that will only be surpassed by SHIN. No doubt SHIN will get a tremendously favourable NOD when the dust clears so Minister Atkinson will not appear to the masses of uninformed Saskatchewan taxpayers and voters like a complete and total resource waster. (One lies and the other swears to it) My prediction at this time is that this so called review is no more than a time wasting NDP tactic. I personally expect to see a plethora of money saving recommendations that will ultimately prove to be costly to the Nth and void of any practical or perceived benefit to any part of the system or to any end user of the system. My goodness, how cynical I have become. and how is the Saskatchewan Party is not taking the architect of the Plains closure to task? This is one of only a few items that will rate a spot on this, the opening page of the Healthgaffes. Stay Tuned!   June 20 2000 I had to go way back to June 09 1999 to find my prediction of doctors leaving the Saskatchewan Healthcare System. Check the 1999 History (below) for the context of this excerpt. snip> Rosalee Longmoore said that "the level of retention will determine the quality of the contract and that is a fact none of us will be able to dispute in the near and not so distant future no matter how the ratification vote goes."< I said. . > How will the ordinary person be able to tell?  More beds will close, and more doctors will leave too! That's how!<end snip The fact is that a doctors life on the job is hell without, at least adequate, nursing staff. Adequate nursing staff seldom exists these days. As predictions go this one was not that profound or insightful and yet when we look at the two most recent items in the history of this page (history 2000) and we see the exodus of physicians from Saskatoon we have to wonder if they woke up one morning and found they were just a bit too close to Roy for their liking. Did I say "I told you so"? I guess I did, and I am not the only one! Now I say "let's not wait for Mr. Fykes to spend that two million dollars before we take some action to remedy the nursing problems that exist province wide"!   (Oddly enough this item is the second re-print in a row and they speak for themselves re: Saskatchewan's NDP Healthcare system.) Ladies and Gentlemen: June 19 2000 I am reprinting this item from the Star Phoenix web site FYI. snip> Prognosis grim for pediatrics Long shifts driving more specialists out of province By Jason Warick Pediatric services in Saskatoon will be severely tested over the coming months due to the impending departures of a child heart specialist, a child brain specialist and most of the program's medical residents. Many of the problems revolve around the doctors' heavy workload, including pediatric intensive care unit shifts that frequently exceed 30 hours. "I'm really mad - disgusted by the whole system," said Monnell LaBelle, whose two-year-old son Bradin had open heart surgery last month. She said Bradin received excellent care before and during the surgery, but wonders what his inevitable future care will be like. "Why aren't these doctors staying? You know who's going to suffer? My son and the other children." Bradin's cardiologist, Dr. Ashok Kakadekar, resigned from his position at the University of Saskatchewan's college of medicine this week, leaving the college's other child heart specialist, Dr. Michael Tyrrell, to cover the entire province. Dr. Elaine Wirrell, one of three pediatric neurologists in the province, is also leaving at the end of the month. Add these to the loss of 12 of the program's 15 medical residents, who have medical degrees but were completing four years of specialty work in pediatrics. Residents are not officially pediatricians but are relied on to treat large numbers of children for more general problems. "There were 15 of us - now there's three. Sure, this affects patient care," said one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "People are voting with their feet. (College of medicine and Saskatoon District Health officials) weren't willing to admit there was a problem. That's why there is this exodus." Some of the residents interviewed said they frequently worked more than 30 consecutive hours in the pediatric intensive care unit, when their contract only allows a 28-hour maximum shift. "It's very stressful. There are frequent emergencies," one resident said. "Do you want me taking care of your kid after 33 hours on shift? No way." Another resident said everyone in the department should be working in the best interests of the children, "but it doesn't seem like it." "Things are bad right now. It's sad because there are a lot of good people there." Four of those departing are graduating, one is on maternity leave and at least one is leaving to pursue an area not offered in Saskatoon. But others grew frustrated with the lack of instruction and support, and are transferring to other programs. The college of medicine and the health district have become too dependent on residents to do the work of the pediatricians, cutting into their instruction time. "We just work and work. We aren't taught anything," one resident said. Pediatrics department head Dr. Alan Rosenberg admitted it's "an unusual number (of departures). It is a problem for us." This will compound the already acute shortage of pediatricians in Saskatchewan, he said. There are about 35 pediatricians working in the province, most of them in the college of medicine at Royal University Hospital. There are about 110 pediatricians in Manitoba, which has roughly the same population. Eight new residents will be starting the program next month, partially offsetting the losses. But Rosenberg said something desperately needs to be done about the shortages in the pediatric intensive care unit, including the long shifts. "It's in the patient's best interest that (doctors) not be around if they're overly exhausted. Twenty-four hours is a long time," he said. "We can't sustain this." Aside from the need to fill the vacated cardiology and neurology positions, the department is also short of child respirologists, geneticists, and critical-care specialists. Rosenberg said some help is on the way, but "as always, it has to reach a bit of a crisis." The college, the health district and provincial Health Department will be hiring some doctors to temporarily cover duties in pediatrics and the intensive care unit. To address the long-term shortages, an independent reviewer will evaluate pediatric services at Royal University Hospital, likely in the fall. "Obviously, we're very concerned," said Lawrence Krahn of the Health Department. Saskatoon District Health vice-president Shan Landry said the departing doctors "forced us to look at things very quickly. "It's going to be difficult, but we have a number of plans."<end Snip   Ladies and Gentlemen: June 10 2000 I am reprinting this item from the Star Phoenix web site FYI. snip> Pathology in critical condition: doctor Resignations further burden system, West says By Jason Warick Pathology services in Saskatoon - which include diagnosing cancer, kidney failure and other serious medical problems - are in "crisis" following the resignations of four more pathologists, says the president of their provincial association. "I think Saskatoon has reached crisis levels," said Dr. Robert West, a Regina pathologist and president of the Saskatchewan Association of Pathologists. "An overworked pathologist will make errors, and the Saskatoon pathologists were already being overworked quite badly (before the four resignations were announced)." Dr. Duane Barber recently left a position at St. Paul's Hospital for Calgary. An expert in diagnosing skin cancer, Barber and his wife, Andrea Brooks, are expected to work together on melanoma research. The other three pathologists leaving worked for the University of Saskatchewan's college of medicine, which has bled pathologists at an astonishing rate during the past year and a half. Gone is Dr. David George, Saskatchewan's foremost expert in a number of areas, including the diagnosis of brain tumours, kidney failure and many children's diseases. He was scheduled to return to the U of S this summer following a year of research at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, but will be moving to Calgary. "He has exceptional skills. He's devoted his career to developing those skills," said Dr. Tony Magliocco, a cancer researcher at the University of Calgary who was on the team that hired George. Magliocco left the U of S last year. "We're really quite thrilled (to have landed George)." Dr. Andrew Lyon will also be leaving the U of S to join George at the U of C. His wife, Martha, will be leaving her position in the U of S department of pharmacology. Dr. Terrance Moyana has resigned and has accepted a job in Ottawa, Magliocco said. Three other pathologists have left the U of S college of medicine in the past year. None of the departing physicians could be reached for comment Thursday. West said their reasons for leaving were likely the same as the reasons of those who left before them. "The (college of medicine) leadership has been very hostile to pathologists," he said. U of S pathology department head Dr. Jay Kalra is taking a paid leave of his duties at the end of the month, but West said there is little confidence things will improve. Dr. Bruce Murray, head of pathology for Saskatoon District Health admitted the rash of resignations will strain services in the coming months. "We're getting behind the 8-ball. We seem to be bleeding west," he said. Murray noted Dr. Kathy Pauw, an experienced pathologist from New Brunswick, has been hired to replace Barber. He said he is confident the health district board will provide sufficient funding in the coming year "to fill the positions to do the job we are asked to do." College of Medicine officials didn't return interview requests on Thursday.<end snip June 01 2000 The LPN legislation desperately begs for more attention than it would seem Minister Actionson is capable of providing. It appears that she has no comprehension of either the legal or the practical aspects of altering the status of Licensed Practical Nurses in the workplace. The uninformed in both government and other areas of healthcare have been lulled into thinking that LPN's have become something more than Nurses Aides since they were allowed to change their name. The fact of the matter is that LPN's do the jobs that do not require the expertise of a fully trained RN.  They do those jobs at a significantly lower salary scale thereby saving the healthcare system money. They do those jobs in a timely and efficient manner that lends itself to providing the optimum care for the patient and to maximizing the benefit to the nurse and the physician as well. Contrary to what may have become popular belief, the nurse is the primary caregiver for the majority of hospitalized patients. The Physician intervenes for short periods of assessment and treatment/surgery and the remainder of acute care, on-going assessment, planning, follow-up care and planning and health teaching is provided by the Registered Nurse. The Registered Nurse carries great legal responsibility for all action taken in the provision of patient care because ultimately the majority of decisions are made by the nurse in the absence of the Physician. All action taken by both the Physician and the RN during the course of care and treatment is charted in the patient record or the patient chart. This chart is a legal document and is maintained as such for obvious reasons of accountability and accuracy in providing care and treatment. The simple fact of this whole issue is that the Physician may personally provide whatever care he deems appropriate for his patient, whether that be surgery, a dressing change, taking a temperature or a blood pressure or washing the patients feet! The Registered Nurse carried out all orders of the Physician as they are communicated (usually in the legal document called the 'chart') unless those orders are seen as unsafe or inappropriate. OH YES; The Registered Nurse is the check and balance for the Physician. Occasionally the Doctor makes an error or overlooks something and the Registered Nurse is TRAINED to identify any situation that might endanger the patients well-being or care. The Registered Nurse is the "patient manager" if you will. All things related to the patient are 'managed' by the RN. In fact all things related to the group of patients are managed by the RN in such as way as to maximize the care received by each patient. So contrary to popular belief, it is not the Physician that provides primary care to the patient it is the RN. Similarly healthcare managers provide a compliment of staff in the form of RN's, LPN's and Unit Clerks to run a particular area of the hospital. In the absence of the 'manager' (evenings or weekends) the Registered Nurse does the job of managing as well, in the form of tracking down replacement staff for those off with illness as well as coordinating with other depts. or agencies that might normally communicate with a manager. Contrary to what this new legislation seems to suggest, the patient will not be better off with TWO independent care givers such as LPN's and RN's giving care at one time. The main reason for this is that Registered Nurses Guidelines for Safe Practice will almost certainly identify this as a recipe for disaster. Only one person can be in charge of patient care. Only one cook may reasonably run the kitchen. Only one mechanic may disassemble and repair your engine. Simple common sense tells us that one person and only one person may lead. That person is the Registered Nurse. Unfortunately Health Minister Pat Atkinson is not an RN. Perhaps this explains why leadership in healthcare is the way it is. Maybe the Minister will listen to the SRNA and find out which way she ought to lead regarding this issue? Or then again perhaps she will ask the experts from the University of Regina or from Housekeeping Services. May 20 2000 What the heck happened? Still no big announcement! But quietly in the LP it was announced that several top Regina Health District managers have left their top positions in the district. Norma Reynolds Vice President  Resource and Development Services Denise Hardenne Vice President  Integrated Clinical Services and I think one Peggy Pitfield as well, Director of Occupational Health and Safety. These are TOP PEOPLE, ladies and gentlemen. Coincidence that they have wandered away just as the BIG REPORT landed on the Health Ministers desk? Someone knows but in all likelihood we will never know here. It has been difficult to put together a comment that differs from comments previously made, since the Health Minister, Patch Actionson has been repeating over and over that she has no plan for healthcare in Saskatchewan, as well as continuing to blame the Federal Liberals for Saskatchewan troubles. So when will some news really appear? Apparently the Minister will need 4-6 weeks to review the PROPOSED PLAN for the Regina Health District and then probably more time to review the budgets for all the other Health Districts. So that puts us very near the end of June! I am guessing that we will see this government try and postpone the inevitable until the fall sitting of the legislature! Of course, I am just guessing, but I seem to recall having said that this NDP governments answer to taking care of business has been to delay, procrastinate, blame, name call, put off, distract and stall for time; so it stands to reason that they would continue with this course of inaction since it has them in government! Oh! and I almost forgot lie! They have suddenly reinvented the meaning of "transition fund" and thrown $26 million dollars at the Health District Debt. This action of course is necessary, and will pay huge dividends should the NDP as government be required in the near future to actually account for true government debt as opposed to just being able to invent a balanced budget on paper, for the media, the disinterested and the NDP party faithful! May 16 2000 What the heck happened? No big announcement even though the deadline for the health report has come and gone. As impossible as it seems, it may be that someone is still actually looking at the information and trying to make some sense of it. Perhaps the announcement is to be so bad that extra time was needed to prepare for damage control. Perhaps Mr. McPherson's move to leave the political arena affected the timetable for the announcement. In any case I am still predicting a very serious "bad news, news release". I should also predict that it won't make it onto the government news release web site, but, I suspect that the NDP will try and make it look like they are doing something brilliant and insightful and will put it on there in that light. So. .wait for it. . its coming.   May 13, 2000 May 15 - Doomsday rapidly approaches. Poise yourselves for the BIG announcement! What will it be? The Regina Health District apparently has a plan for reducing it's $12 million dollar deficit. No doubt they will try and get rid of it all before the next election no matter how much of healthcare has to be sacrificed! The main goal seems to have been to find some revenue dollars. This may seem strange to some but remember the decidedly AMERICAN flavour of the election. The name calling, the childish mudslinging, the lying and so forth. Do not be surprised if you and your elderly loved ones are directly billed for toilet paper and such, Anerican Style. Do I have inside knowledge that this will be the tact taken by the NDP and the RHD? No I don't but there are precious few other revenue generating means available. Oh sure they can sell advertising on the laundry truck or even the ambulances, but how much will that bring in really! They are going to have to go where the many little dollars are and that would be patients, CUPE and SUN. What about SHIN? With any luck the NDP will take a lesson from Manitoba and just wash their hands of it, but I fear they will cling to this MONEY PIT like the voters have clung to the NDP.   March 22, 2000 Ok! Rather than just RANT as I sometimes seem to do ..  I have spent several hours at the NDP propaganda news release site to see what there was to see. Very interesting! I have listed below in chronological order the most interesting and relevant NDP gov't news release pages that seem to indicate this gov't highly comfused and incompetant approach to the spending of 1.9 billion dollars per year on healthcare. This is the face of the NDP!The NDP voters of Saskatchewan trust this person with $1.9 billion Saskatchewan Taxpayer dollars. Given the following information that I encourage you to take time to review item by item, I would prefer to see this money managed by the spin of a wheel.    Links within these comments will take to relevant sections of the items below. Briefly what I found was this: Studies have proven useless or have been ignored over the years. The NDP just keep bragging and bragging and bragging about their balanced budgets while they shirk their financial responsibilities in order to fake balanced books. 1997 saw major dollars spent on maintaining and recruiting rural physicians. Less than a year ago Health Minister Atkinson stated "rural hospitals are here to stay". Today we see a selective master plan of rural hospitals closing and physicians being forced out as other hospitals are renovated with major capitol expenditure money. If this seems strange to you in these times, you are not alone. Less than a year ago 12 million dollars was guaranteed to shorten waiting lists. It didn't happen; in fact its worse! 1997 saw the birth SHIN. Without any mandate of any kind the NDP dreamed up this $40 million dollar high tech mega pilot project to enhance health services province wide and save money! They have blundered into fast tracking this "money pit" project without ever passing law that would allow those who do not want their private health records on the internet to opt out. They continue to spend money without accountability , realised saving, or prospect of saving in the future. The phoney budgets that were forced on the health districts in order to defer attention from the office Health Minister Atkinson have come back to haunt her! These same phoney budgets were never realistic and yet she continues to try and blame the district boards, most of which are over (phoney) budget. The questions that need to be asked are: Where is the money coming from for SHIN and the un-necessary capitol expenditures that seem to be ongoing? When will the NDP get called on having no mandate for SHIN, no prospects of it ever realising a saving and no legal right to digitally record and store private health records on a network? When will the true state of this provinces "deficit" become public, and include healthcare mismanagement dollars? How blatant and obvious does the lying, the bragging and the hidden agenda have to become before the remaining NDP's with some personal concience cross the floor and rid the province of the incompetance in the Premiers office, the Finance Ministers office and the Health Ministers office. Please visit the news release sites I have included below and judge the propaganda value for yourself! Is there an adjective that might describe managers and politicians who are, apparently more incompetent, shortsighted and arrogant than one could imagine in their worst nightmare?   Stay tuned.     Chronological listing of healthcare news release items of interest to critics of the NDP February 1995 A study is commissioned by the outgoing Louise Simard on healthcare. July 05 1995 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1995/07/05-291.html Health Minister Lorne Calvert says Saskatchewan is several years ahead of other provinces in health renewal. May 1996 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1996/05/30-257.html February 1995 study begins - May 1996 study complete. Year long study lacks any form of substantial information or direction. Aug 1996 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1996/05/30-257.html Strong economy provides 40 million extra for health and medicare Money to pay debts of health districts. Feb 06 1997 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1997/02/06-043.html Additional Service for Physicians - 1.3 million dollars. Retain physicians. Mar 24 1997 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1997/03/24-114.html 1.085 million to enhance physician services to the north; Maintain and recruit La Ronge  - Ile a la Crosse - Uranium City April 25 1997 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1997/04/25-191.html Grants offered for rural physicians - 1.64 million dollars Aug 25 1997 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1997/08/25-381.html 40 million dollars to SHIN over two years - pilot projects announced. Job awarded to U.S. based SIAC company Mar 19 1998 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1998/03/19-165.html 20 million to SHIN - year two of 40 million. April 28 1998 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1998/04/28-297.html 200 representatives gather to plan SHIN - This was a sham where the representatives were told what SHIN was, how the 40 million was being spent and then they went home. Dec 04 1998 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1998/12/04-896.html Atkinson announces next phase of telehealth pilot project. Faster, more efficient, assisted by SHIN. - What does that mean? 1.5 million to new companies - Computing Devices Canada and Advanced Data Systems. Mar 26 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/03/26-214.html Atkinson - Rural health better today because of 5.2 million increase for homecare. Mar 26 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/03/26-208.html Atkinson brags about a 1.9 billion dollar health budget and a bunch of numbers during pre-election time. (just before nurses strike and RGH closes 60 beds). Mar 26 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/03/26-230.html Atkinson says improved health for the northern residents. New facilities and "telehealth" - who is paying for telehealth this year? More health providers. April 30 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/04/30-379.html Atkinson commits to listen to doctors and front line workers - post strike rhetoric. May 17 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/05/17-478.html 1.1 million for new Wilkie health facility. Good news pre-election. March 24 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/03/24-200.html Atkinson - "Rural hospitals are here to stay" pre-election talk to SAHO annual convention. May 31 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/05/31-571.html New Deputy Health Minister - More cooks in the kitchen. Pre-election shuffle. Aug 13 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/08/13-714.html 12 million dollars targets surgical waiting lists - good news pre-election announcement. Shorter waiting lists coming soon! Oct 28 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/10/28-810.html 28 million dollar surplus for NDP fiscal year 1998/1999 announced by Eric Cline Province in strong financial position!  Oct 29 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/10/29-813.html 22 million dollar deficit for Regina Health District announced Patch Actionson announces Review of the Regina Health District under the direction of Bert Boyd of B.C. Nov 03 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/11/03-825.html Completely new health facility for Turtleford to replace existing hospital! No price mentioned Nov 17 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/11/17-848.html 18.2 million dollar surplus for 1999/2000 budget according to Eric Cline Economy Strong - Budget BALANCED! - Good Grief! Nov 12 1999 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999/11/12-844.html 9.5 million dollar price tag to replace existing hospital in La Loche Gov't committed to Northern Saskatchewan. Feb 23 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/02/23-074.html Atkinson turfs out East Central (Yorkton) health board and installs her own appointee Mar 10 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/03/10-129.html 4 million to East Central Health District 46.5 million recently issued in special warrents by NDP for Dept. of Health ********** Read these two together Mar 03 2000 http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/03/03-101.html Budget approved for North Central Health District (Melfort) $305,000 dollar surplus planned for this district Renovations/addition to Melfort hospital Plan brings services closer to residents "North Central doing a good job!" says Atkinson ********** Read these two together Mar 22 2000 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/carrotR./UnitedWeStand/United.html Kevin McIntire laments the closing of the Carrot River Hospital - (North East Health District) - In the general area of MELFORT! Also the loss of Sask Tel, Sask Power, DNR and Dept of Highways March 20 2000 Regina LP Atkinson calls for healthcare input at the SAHO convention Atkinson tells SAHO convention "belt tightening by health districts inevitable". 22 of 32 health districts running deficits $50 million dollar total deficit for health districts March 22 2000 Regina RGH closes an operating room Mysterious illness among nurses blamed Waiting lists in excess of two years for some - one year for most March 23 2000 Greaner tell the world! Right here. More certainly to come on budget day! March 13 2000 Hot on the heels of the last comments here about opting out of allowing the NDP gov't and SAHO to put personal, confidential and private health records on the internet, I have found that SHIN has encouraged, promoted and implemented the e-mailing of personal, confidential and private healthcare records. According to the information found at the SHIN page, e-mailing of health records is already occurring. snip> Maternal Infant Care Pilot Project – Prince Albert Health District The Maternal Infant Care project in Prince Albert demonstrated great success with the use of an electronic form which tracks the mother and infant from her time in the hospital through the post-partum period. The pilot project was complete in mid-January and nurses will continue to use the electronic form. The form is called the electronic post-partum teaching and referral record: Nurses in the obstetrical ward at the Victoria Hospital keep an electronic record of the mother and infant during their stay in hospital. At time of discharge this record is then e-mailed to the public health nurses who uses it to brief herself prior to the visit and continues to use it as a record for her home visits. <end snip I suspect that exposing personal and private healthcare information in this manner is presently illegal and will be exploring the issue further very soon. Ladies and Gentlemen, this gov't will simply take your rights and freedoms along with your money without even asking should they be allowed to do so without question. This is the tip of the iceberg that will lead to all of our records being exposed to electronic theft or eavesdropping. Even greater becomes the risk that your information will be lost to virus or damage to the electronic media. I  suspect that many people nationwide not only hesitate to e-mail sensitive material, but religiously refuse to do so. Not our NDP/SAHO gov't. They are doing it without anyone's permission. How much more arrogant and disrespectful can these so called "elected representatives" get? March 11 2000 If it wasn't so serious it would be comical. I find myself making this statement more and more often these days. Mario de Santis has presented an article  at the North Cental Internet News (which I hope you are visiting on a regular basis) that very clearly describes the tunnel vision, one track, single/wrong minded approach of this NDP gov't and the devastation that results from the combination of ignorance and power that currently exists the office of Saskatchewans Health Minister. The North East Health district has recently done two things. They have (the NDP that is) bragged on TV about "Telehealth" and the virtues of having spent over $400,000.00 dollars on the equipment alone. They have (the NDP that is) closed the Carrot River acute care facility. An interesting trade off. I would like to know for certain that a greater number of people will be better served by one telehealth connection than an existing acute care hospital. I would like to know what the "cost recovery time" on the $400,00 dollars will be as well as the "cost recovery" on all the related dollars that were spent to implement this so called inovation. Remember, $400,000.00 will pay an RN full salary at the top of the scale for 9 years! It's a fact!!! I think we can all figure out why there is no money to increase salaries for nurses a bit more. Legislation still does not exist that allows this governement to place anyones healthcare records on the internet and yet tens of millions of dollars continue to be poured into SHIN ( Saskatchewan Health Information Network ). I will be among the first to exercise my option under law forbidding Sask. Health from putting my information or the information of my family into electronic form and onto the internet. If they ever get around to actually creating law that allows them to do it in the first place. You may rest assured that the opt out information will be clearly and accurately placed on this site for all who wish to know about it. Hopefully we can get rid of the stupidity before it come to that! Patch Actionson - Update March 06, 2000     As an update to the Wellness Muddle Page please find the full Bert Boyd report (pdf) at the Sask Health Page. It is curious that the expert analysis found here fails to comment on one of the recent improvements in efficiency at the RGH. That being the practice of each unit "hoarding" pillows and beds. Oh yes. Health care at the RGH took a giant leap forward when the Plains nurses arrived at the RGH and posed the question as to why patients who were transferred from one unit to another had to be moved from their bed, into an identical bed. RGH staff units were managed in isolation from, and in competition with, each other for beds, pillows and bedding. The Plains nurses put an end to this practice by asking the question, "Why do you think the beds have wheels?" The improvement in efficiency was realized from; time saved, reduced bedding changes and laundering, comfort and safety to patients and most significantly reduced stress that comes naturally with the elimination of stupidity. Even more odd, no mention of nurses no longer being required to wheel the recently deceased to the morgue. Almost certainly the greatest of inappropriate time wasting duties formerly done by RN's! Neither was the ridiculous state of "registration" for out-patients at the RGH mentioned. Registration is the (sometimes 3 hour) process where all patients regardless of type, are required by the efficiency experts to queue up prior to entering hospital. Fine if you are going to be admitted; but what if you attend the hospital weekly, or several times a week for treatments or monitoring? You guessed it, you have to queue up for a full registration processing.  You have to make the really ill wait, as well as any who might have scheduled appointments, including yourself. In turn the physician, therapist or examiner in any service has to wait too. Surely an out-patient, attending the hospital on a regular basis could register for several appointments/weeks/months in a row with greater ease and efficiency than is presently the case.  We will continue to blunder down the path of looking at the big picture while the inefficiencies and waste on the front line continue to grind our nurses and our entire system into the dehumanized dirt that the NDP call "The Wellness Model". March 02, 2000 The NDP propaganda page contained this item of interest to nurses and healthcare consumers this date. As part of the "financial recovery plan" for the Regina Health District. .  snip> Atkinson will fill three board vacancies with individuals having strong business skills.  <end snip Who better to increase inefficiency and waste than three business types. Common sense would seem to indicate to me that one would put an expert on the delivery of health services onto the board and into management as well. Not in Saskatchewan! Oh no! Not here. We will continue to blunder down the path of looking at the big picture while the inefficiencies and waste on the front line continue to grind our nurses and our entire system into the dehumanized dirt that the NDP call "The Wellness Model".   February 29, 2000 Finally something concrete has happened in the great and wonderful world of politics that affects healthcare and nursing in Saskatchewan. The Federal budget! At the risk of minimizing a fairly far-reaching budget I wish to address the main item that has gone un-noticed by the "professional critics" and "professional nurses" as well. The increasing of maternity and paternity leaves to 50 months. It sounds WONDERFUL for mothers and fathers and it sounds like a boon to society as well, but is it really? No other single budget item will have a greater impact on Canadian society and the economy than this. No other single item will have a greater impact on nursing and healthcare in this country and province! Recently the push has been on to offer something called universal childcare. Couples and individuals are encouraged by society and gov't to work or attend school as opposed to attending to their children for much of the day. They are encouraged by subsidies that allow parents who might otherwise be unable to abandon their children to do so, safe in the knowledge that the "state" will attend to their education, nourishment and well being from infancy through high school. At the same time the hypocrites in Ottawa who allowed the "employment insurance dollars" to accumulate beyond any reasonable expectation decided that increasing parental leave would be a good way to whittle these dollars down, distract from the original blunder of mismanaging the money in the first place and make themselves look like "family loving" stewards of society in the process. What does this have to do with nursing you ask? Well. . Not only is this a hypocritical two faced approach to spending social program dollars, it flies in the face of common sense as it pertains to the landscape of Canadian Nation wide needs today. Consider the lowly business owner who hires a young person recently graduated in their field of expertise. Almost certainly this young person will start a family as young people do. It has been bad enough that the employer has had to find a temporary replacement for 6 months every time a pregnancy occurs. This could amount to an employee only working for 14 out of 26 months employment. Each time the employer needs to find a temporary competent replacement and provide training for that replacement for the particular job. In theory with a full 50 months off at each pregnancy the employee could be employed for greater than twice the amount of time they actually work assuming they become pregnant near the beginning of their, so called career. So why I am writing about this here? Consider the state of nursing. Primarily senior nurses are approaching retirement. Mainly new graduates are being hired as fast as they can be educated. Mainly young women of child bearing age are graduating. These women will be having babies, they will be taking a year off each and every time and the employer will continue to have an even more serious nursing shortage than currently exists!!! Now I do not begrudge the paying out of employment insurance dollars to anyone who has contributed for an extended time. I do not begrudge nurses or women receiving maternity leave. (6 months is adequate) I do find fault with this two faced ridiculous effort at dumping one problem onto a group of employers and employees who already have more trouble than the whole country can handle. And I do find fault with a gov't that takes money away from single wage earner families or nuclear families who attend to their own children and who then give it to people who choose to abandon their children in state funded childcare. Only a group of politicians without a thought in their head other than getting re-elected soon, could have dreamed up an idea so far removed from both common sense and even the most remote thoughts of taxpayers. It is more than a little ironic that this will impact on healthcare more seriously than even I can probably imagine. Almost certainly education will suffer dramatically as well from a doubling of absentee female teacher work hours.   February 22, 2000 Does anyone remember April 08, 1999? That was the day the SUN went on strike. Today I announce that the procrastinating/ delaying/two-faced/hypocritical NDP, SAHO, employers are finally going to allow the nurses to have their negotiated raise on this coming Friday Feb. 25th. Yup. They may find a way to put it off for a little longer and no one will be surprised if they invent some book keeping/acounting/computer excuse, but it does seem inevitable now, as it never did before, that nurses will get their back pay. Even as reality finally caught up with the government on one front, they are procrastinating on providing extended health benefits to nurses as negotiated. We can almost certainly expect implementation of this negotiated item to drag on for an unreasonable length of time. Not to mention they managed to postpone for the full year, "officially"! It's too bad things are worse in health care today than they were pre strike, but then the physicians failed to see the writing on wall when the nurses were striking and only recently have felt the bite of NDP/SAHO arrogance and stupidity themselves. Next time maybe even the voting public at large will have stumbled onto the sorry and disgusting truth about this governments record of delaying, postponing and misrepresenting themselves and their intentions, when the polls open. It's also too bad we have to wait until then! Fortunately we do what the NDP do so well, and we can blame Jim's liberals but really we need to look in the mirror and remind ourselves who we voted for and then we need to look out window and ask ourselves if it worked, really!       February 04, 2000 Regina LP letters to the editor Feb. 03: "Nurses not properly utilized" This title actually reflects the content of Myrna Pederson's letter. She has identified the fact the capable nurses have been offered jobs which have little or nothing to do with nursing. I.e. Nurses were offered training on the new computer system in order that they might go on to become "trainers" of a majority of nurses. So they were removed from the units and active duty, as it were, for training and then continued to remain off the units as they trained other nurses. They continue to remain off the units at present even though the system has been fully implemented. There seems to be very little doubt that "computer people" could do this job while nurses remained on the floors.          **************************** "Nurses educators" are another example of capable of RN's being out of the loop of active patient care. These "educator" positions have largely been filled by nurses who have obtained a degree or some university classes. Invariably when a topic arises, these so called educators, who often have minimal active work experience in the area they are responsible for providing education in, find that they must recruit the 20 year veteran nurses from the unit to assist them with the lesson plan, or they just teach the wrong thing and have to be corrected by the 20 year veterans. They then set aside time during their regular work hours of 9-5, Monday to Friday and expect the unit nurses to attend an instructional session. Not only are their presentations often weak and inappropriate they are impossible to attend during the busy day shift hours. Were these same nurses to put in two or three hours on the night shift on the week-end actively nursing the ill and injured the other staff might be able to free up an hour or two over-night to look over some material or even to meet for an information session. Getting back to my pet peeve concerning the under utilization of the 20 year veteran nurses. .. this topic falls right into place. Even the administrators of the floors call on the 20 year veterans to orientate them to their admin. job! Typical government! Lets get the message out. The greatest resource for remedying the problems of inefficient management can be found slaving away on the units. They orientate the new grads, students, physicians and administrators alike while carrying a full patient load and probably being in "charge" as well, or orientating some less experienced staff to be in "charge". Remember the "charge" nurse coordinates all other nurses patients with the various services they may require off the floor and on, as well as communicates with the various Physicians about the condition of each of their patient loads on a daily or more frequent basis. The degree program of four years of nursing training presents a mix of rationales due to the fact that a great deal of the four years is currently spent learning to be administrators as opposed to learning basic nursing skills! Ask anyone who might have worked for 6 months or so, they will almost certainly tell you that were the 20 year veterans not shifted properly with the new staff there would big trouble maintaining anything close to a safe environment for patients. Why? Because no amount of admin. classes can prepare a new grad for what lies ahead on a post surgical floor, for example.   January 28, 2000 I can hardly believe it, but it must be true. I saw it on TV last night and in the LP again today. Federal Health Minister Allan Rock is so concerned about healthcare in Canada that he is planning to call his "provincial counterparts" together in May of this year to work on the problems facing healthcare. Mr. Rock has presented some general areas where he believes the solution lies. First and foremost seems to be a vastly revamped homecare system (to take the load off of critical care in hospitals). Hmmm, post surgical homecare, post major trauma homecare and who knows what else? I have to imagine that Mr. Rock determined his priorities on the advice of experts in the field of healthcare delivery because he really offered no concrete evidence that he knew any more than I do about healthcare in general, or the existing problems or solutions. I am certain that when all the Health Ministers from all the provinces get together there will be a void of expertise at least equal to the void currently found here in the Saskatchewan Health Ministers office. Rumour has it that arsonists from across Canada are going to meet in May as well. Their goal will apparently be to find ways to minimize the deliberate setting of fires in our fair country! An incredible parallel, in my humble opinion.   January 22, 2000 Surprise! Since the death of a Weyburn man was blamed on the physicians by the Administrators of the Regina Health District many have been waiting for the physicians reaction. Today the Head of Cardiology for the Regina Health District took exception to the blamers.   Dr. Naiyer Habib (Head of Cardiology) has responded to the RHD claims that "poor communication" on the part of the physicians was to blame for a Weyburn man having been refused a bed at the RGH prior to his death from coronary problems. Dr. Habib has clearly stated that at no time has the Regina Health District approached himself or any Cardiology physicians regarding the policy and/or procedures for priorizing cardiac patients for admission to hospital. This in spite of efforts on the part of the cardiology dept. to make their wishes known. Therefore, he has clearly stated, the failure to provide a bed was the indisputable result of Health District Admission Policy. What comes as no surprise to this writer was the first news report to make the TV stated the Regina Health District had claimed Dr. Habib's statements were untrue! Who are ya gonna believe? I choose to believe the Head of Cardiology for the Health District. I certainly have no reason to believe the NDP have ever made "informed" decisions regarding healthcare in this province and when the Head of Cardiology publicly states that the Regina Health District failed to consult with the Cardiology dept. regarding the admission policies and procedures, I have no doubt that would be the truth of it! It will be difficult for the Regina Health District and the Province to maintain and recruit competent Cardiologists for the province if the administrators continue to call them liars and poor communicators whose actions have resulted in the death of a patient, won't it? As the evidence continues to pile up that indicates this gov't and Healthcare Management Team are "out of control" there can be no doubt that the NDP "blamers, liars and name callers", have been allowed to make too many mistakes. Mistakes that have now cost more than one life. DO SOMETHING! Make a phone call, send a fax or an e-mail or make a web page for example. January 22, 2000 Very interesting that the NDP Health Minister has the "authority" to just arbitrarily determine the length of the Degree Nursing Program. Even more interesting, the response from the various interest groups. Way back, when nurses trained at the Gray Nuns in Regina and probably St. Pauls in S'toon, it was training on the job. Nurses were less technically minded and more hands on practical and physical care. A number of years ago the three year program was reduced to two years for Diploma graduates. Nurses did not need their "degree" unless they intended to do nothing but be an "administrator". This system worked well and churned out many fine nurses. Of course as people usually do, with something that is working fine ..  . they screw it up! The powers that be, failed to just, add a degree level of advanced nursing, they chose to eliminate the "diploma", two year program, somehow thinking that many young people would want to go to school for four years, get a degree, so they could clean up after bed ridden patients and work long shift work hours for a fraction of what their skills entitle them to in other parts of North America. Whoops. Its didn't work. Why you ask? It didn't work because they had it right "way back", before they changed it. No matter how many years a person attends nursing school, they finish up and begin their first job, "dumber than a bag of hammers", because they cannot learn what they need to know in an educational setting. If they are lucky, they will learn what they need to know to begin "on the job training" at their first job. If they are lucky they will begin their first job in an area that has sufficient "senior nurses" who are willing and able to "hand down' the required knowledge, tips and tricks necessary to get the job done in the real world. Regrettably few seem to realize that several annual nursing classes have graduated an entire field of "administrators" who believe they know everything and are sadly unprepared to begin their "on the job training". Regrettably calling a three year grad or a four grad a "degree nurse" won't make any difference when they show up for work that first week and find out that they have 5-8 critically ill people to attend to. They will learn that no education can prepare them for the responsibility that comes with having to budget 14 hours worth of duties into 9 or 10 hours worth of time. They will learn that nothing can prepare them for the demands of having several patients "go bad" at once. Or for having 6 discharges and 6 admissions on a given shift. Or for the desperate knowledge that no matter how hard they try, they will not be able to provide adequate and safe care. Regrettably Minister Atkinson failed to recognize that the 20 year veteran nurses can do the job "in their sleep". Regrettably SAHO and the employers have failed to realize that the 20 year veterans can only do the job "in their sleep" for so long and then they burn out! Regrettably even SUN has failed to call upon the 20 year veterans for advice and guidance. The workplace determines the value of the education and of the nurse.  Not the arbitrary decisions made by the ignorant concerning education. Not the "new manager" with the new style, new procedures, new arbitrary decisions and policies. Not the politicians or the educators. Not the union either. The quality of the new grad will be determined by the quality of the senior staff with whom the new grads are privileged to work with for the first several months and years of their employment. The quality of patient care is determined by the combination of influence senior nursing staff have with the resources available to them in any given area of patient care. That is my interpretation of the facts of the matter. If you are a "nurse" reader you will get the point right away and if you are not you may need to read one more time. January 18,2000 I keep hearing about inefficiencies, or priorities, or inequities in the so called system. The Health Minister seems to be saying she would like to find out just what went wrong with the system, every few weeks! Well I have made a comparison between nurses salaries and teachers salaries before, early on in the development of these pages. I just got a school calendar for the current year and thought I ought to re-visit this comparison both for nurses sake as well for our children's sake. At my count I make it 182 school days for the 1999-2000 school year. That would be Aug. 30 - June 28. Why is this number significant?   Well first consider that a grade school teacher at the top of the scale is getting more money than a top of the scale nurse on the floor. A top of the scale a nurse gets 5 weeks holidays per year plus equivalent days for stat holidays. 182 / 5= 36 weeks plus 2 days that students see the teacher. That leaves 52-37=15 weeks that teachers do not teach students. I also see 13 days labeled "staff developement/inservice/orientation/convention" days which fall adjacent to school days throughout the year. (These are presumably days when the teachers are working without students around) So we can assume that teachers work 182+13=195 days out the year. That would be 39 weeks out of 52 with 13 weeks off per year. That would in turn be 8 weeks per year more off than the comparable nurse at the top of the scale. Is there some reason that these individuals are being paid more money than nurses to put in less and less time with our children every year? How have they managed to swing this deplorable bargain and continue to say they are over worked and underpaid? How can they sleep at night is the question I ask myself. How can society allow disparity in wages and duty to exist as blatantly wrong as this is? Before you react too, too much figure the hourly wage for teachers having 2 extra months off per year for their annual salary. Remember nurses get $24 or so an hour for $44,000 a year without paid education days. Teachers seem to be getting slightly more than the annual salary of nurses at the top of the scale. So make the calculation for an hourly wage - 44000/39 weeks=$1128 for a teacher per week (were they to only earn a nurses salary) 44000/47 weeks=$936 for a nurse per week At 37.5 hours we have: $1128/37.5=$30.08 per hour for teachers. (assuming they put in full hours per week) $936/37.5=$24.96 per week for nurses. I think these salaries should be reversed. I think teachers have plenty of time to prepare for the years teaching between June and Aug. and ought to spend  more days teaching per year! Its no wonder our youth are doing poorly in our schools. I think nurses and teachers salaries demonstrate the failure of present day society and politicians to address the reality of the workplace, and the value of the individuals therein. Are we really getting $30 dollars an hour in value for our teaching buck? with our limited noon hour supervision and our 2 weeks off at Christmas. Not nearly as certainly as we are getting our $24 dollars from our nurses blood, sweat and tears. and our judges??? January 11, 2000 A real juicy piece today folks. Early today at the RGH (Regina General Hospital) many of the staff and patients became concerned with an odd smell which developed into headaches and general ill feelings. Mainenance staff had a tough time tracking down the problem but finally the truth came out. The ambulance bays were being used to warm up the ambulances (due to the cold weather) and of course they were keeping the bay doors closed CUZ IT WAS COLD OUTSIDE! Apparently the exhaust from the running ambulances was piped through the ventilation system of the entire building. Yup. No kidding! I guess the nursing staff aren't the only ones who aren't allowed to plug in an interior car warmer! Are there items of importance in an ambulance that should not freeze or be exposed to the cold? Or can the ambulance bays themselves not be maintained at an exceptable temperature? Or did the original plans for the RGH just not include provisions for "cold weather"!? Yet again we have the NDP, the Regina Health District in a position which qualifies as what? Unbelievably, desperately dumb? January 03, 2000 First, just to keep things in perspective and up to speed for the non nurse aware visitors - nurses on the floors province wide are busy, really busy readmitting all the patients they just finished discharging before the New Year. How much time does it take, and how much does it cost to discharge one person and then re-admit that person? Would it have been smarter to just send them out on a "pass" and then have them come back in?  Almost certainly.  But then that might have taken a bit more planning and we all know that the method of choice for dealing with any kind of healthcare problem is not to actually solve it through careful and innovative management but rather to just find the most expedient way to slough it off on the front line workers. Second, just by way of review, what has improved or changed for the nurses in the last year? They have a new contract, which has yet to actually put money into the pockets of nurses, because of the NDP gov't and SAHO's continued approach to healthcare of; delay, postpone, procrastinate and put off till later methodology. The workplace situation is worse if anything as patient/nurse ratios are at least equally bad to what they were, pre strike. Regrettably all this failure, misrepresentation and bungling has cost the taxpayer an incredible fortune of millions of dollars and has further failed to offer the Saskatchewan public improvements in healthcare service beyond a few extra pieces of high tech equipment. This equipment was of course needed and is commonplace in other jurisdictions, but the purchase of which does not warrant the bragging and rationalizing and claims of high caliber performance on the part of the politicians we have come to know and be so skeptical of! It looks there will be plenty to write about in the coming months and year. Finally, what should you plan on doing when and if the NDP candidate comes a calling at your door in spite of the fact that you have placed your SUN sign on your lawn? Find out right here. .

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