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Regina Health District closes one surgical theatre:

Shortage of Leadership, Shortage of Nurses and Shortage of Democracy

Nipawin - March 23, 2000 - By: Mario deSantis

diversity of service
I just came to know that because of a shortage of nurses, one surgical theatre at the Regina Hospital

will be closed temporarily for a minimum of two weeks⁽¹⁾. The working conditions for nurses have

been atrocious for the last many years and overtime work for nurses has become a major component

for the routine scheduling of nurses; the same type of employee scheduling we noticed for home

care in Saskatoon where clients would have dozens and dozens of different employees⁽²⁾. This is

what our health administrators proudly call "diversity of service."

Jim Saunders
Most of our health administrators have no ingenuity for innovation and creativity, their main asset

has been to follow blindly the leaderof the leaders, that is Brian Rourke, also known as the Supreme

Asset of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations⁽³⁾ (SAHO). To recognize a real

valuable personal asset⁽⁴⁾ from a large crowd you have to weigh whatever they say. Therefore, I am

going to provide you with some statements Jim Saunders, interim CEO for Regina Health District,

has made in rationalizing the closure of the surgical theatre:

the whole overtime issue is a budget issue

"At this point in time we are continuing to pursue all of our strategies related to our ability to staff the ORs adequately, but the bottom line is, for a number of reasons just coming together related to our ability to staff, we found we had no alternative other than to close one OR.... But we are not out of the woods at all, we still have a lot of work to do to increase our recruitment and to ensure we give them (the nurses) a work environment that they can cope with as professionals... We are looking at everything across the district, as we should, in a comprehensive manner to try and see if there are ways to be more efficient without losing our capacity for programs and services or quality. This is a different issue. Actually the whole overtime issue is a budget issue because of the cost of overtime, but it is the displacement of cost not the amount that is the issue."

our health care leaders are not worth any asset
Can you believe it, Jim Saunders addresses nurses as them and in a paternalistic manner he wants

to "give them a work environment that they can cope with as professionals." Just tell me if

this is a put down statement by this incompetent health administrator. I hope the nurses will

revolt against this small asset of a man. I must say that I am not a judgmental person, but as

I read and reread the above quotation I become more and more convinced that the reasons we

have a health care crisis is because our health care leaders are not worth any asset.

obedient to the "Powers that Be,"
To borrow some deep thoughts from Les MacPherson, journalist with The StarPhoenix, I must

say that Jim Saunders "has mastered the art of speaking without saying anything" and I may add

he has mastered the art of putting down professional people. This is the ingenuity of most of our

leaders, the art of speaking without saying anything and the art of putting down people. These

leaders have no vision, they have no heart, they have no responsibility, mind they have the asset of

being blindly obedient to the "Powers that Be," that same power the Germans experienced with

Hitler. The crisis of health care is not a nursing shortage, it is a crisis of leadership, it is a crisis for

not being respectful to each other, it is a crisis affecting all the province, it is a crisis of democracy.

--------------Endnotes:

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

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

1.
Operating room closed, by Anne Kyle, The Leader-Post, March 22, 2000, Regina, Saskatchewn

2.
-
Home care patients complain of nonstop new faces, CBC Saskatchewan, http://sask.cbc.ca/ Web Posted | Feb 4 2000 5:51 PM EST

3.
-
Saskatchewan Health Information Network-SHIN: Ignoring its mandate and diverting money for the Y2K Nightmare, by Mario deSantis, November 3, 1999

4.
Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations, by Thomas A. Stewart, Doubleday, 1997

Regina Health District closes one surgical theatre: Shortage of Leadership, Shortage of Nurses and Shortage of Democracy

*Nipawin - March 23, 2000 - By: Mario deSantis*

diversity of service	I just came to know that because of a shortage of nurses, one surgical theatre at the Regina Hospital
	will be closed temporarily for a minimum of two weeks⁽¹⁾. The working conditions for nurses have
	been atrocious for the last many years and overtime work for nurses has become a major component
	for the routine scheduling of nurses; the same type of employee scheduling we noticed for home
	care in Saskatoon where clients would have dozens and dozens of different employees⁽²⁾. This is
	what our health administrators proudly call "diversity of service."

Jim Saunders	Most of our health administrators have no ingenuity for innovation and creativity, their main asset
	has been to follow blindly the leaderof the leaders, that is Brian Rourke, also known as the Supreme
	Asset of the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations⁽³⁾ (SAHO). To recognize a real
	valuable personal asset⁽⁴⁾ from a large crowd you have to weigh whatever they say. Therefore, I am
	going to provide you with some statements Jim Saunders, interim CEO for Regina Health District,
	has made in rationalizing the closure of the surgical theatre:
the whole overtime issue is a budget issue	"At this point in time we are continuing to pursue all of our strategies related to our ability to staff the ORs adequately, but the bottom line is, for a number of reasons just coming together related to our ability to staff, we found we had no alternative other than to close one OR.... But we are not out of the woods at all, we still have a lot of work to do to increase our recruitment and to ensure we give them (the nurses) a work environment that they can cope with as professionals... We are looking at everything across the district, as we should, in a comprehensive manner to try and see if there are ways to be more efficient without losing our capacity for programs and services or quality. This is a different issue. Actually the whole overtime issue is a budget issue because of the cost of overtime, but it is the displacement of cost not the amount that is the issue."

our health care leaders are not worth any asset	Can you believe it, Jim Saunders addresses nurses as them and in a paternalistic manner he wants
	to "give them a work environment that they can cope with as professionals." Just tell me if
	this is a put down statement by this incompetent health administrator. I hope the nurses will
	revolt against this small asset of a man. I must say that I am not a judgmental person, but as
	I read and reread the above quotation I become more and more convinced that the reasons we
	have a health care crisis is because our health care leaders are not worth any asset.

obedient to the "Powers that Be,"	To borrow some deep thoughts from Les MacPherson, journalist with The StarPhoenix, I must
	say that Jim Saunders "has mastered the art of speaking without saying anything" and I may add
	he has mastered the art of putting down professional people. This is the ingenuity of most of our
	leaders, the art of speaking without saying anything and the art of putting down people. These
	leaders have no vision, they have no heart, they have no responsibility, mind they have the asset of
	being blindly obedient to the "Powers that Be," that same power the Germans experienced with
	Hitler. The crisis of health care is not a nursing shortage, it is a crisis of leadership, it is a crisis for
	not being respectful to each other, it is a crisis affecting all the province, it is a crisis of democracy.

--------------Endnotes:

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

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

1.	Operating room closed, by Anne Kyle, The Leader-Post, March 22, 2000, Regina, Saskatchewn

2. -	Home care patients complain of nonstop new faces, CBC Saskatchewan, http://sask.cbc.ca/ Web Posted \| Feb 4 2000 5:51 PM EST

3. -	Saskatchewan Health Information Network-SHIN: Ignoring its mandate and diverting money for the Y2K Nightmare, by Mario deSantis, November 3, 1999

4.	Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations, by Thomas A. Stewart, Doubleday, 1997