Pat Atkinson: blaming the doctors
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By Mario deSantis, January 18, 2000 |
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their position of power supercedes their public responsibilities | Our politicians and bureaucratic leaders should explicate public responsibilities; instead, they have |
created a world of their own, where creativity in designing schemes to support their position of | |
power supercedes their public responsibilities. In our past articles we have been dwelling at length | |
on the corrupted environment of health care and on the mismanaging of the related ever increasing | |
resources. | |
Recently, one patient died at a Weyburn hospital after he was waiting for being transferred to | |
the death of this patient should be attributed to the present mismanagement of health resources | a Regina hospital(1). A Regina cardiologist had recommended that this patient be transferred |
to Regina, and notwithstanding three calls were made to have this patient transferred, the Regina | |
Health District responded that no beds were available. Dr. Stan Oleksinski, president of the | |
Saskatchewan Medical Association, has stated that the chronic bed and staff shortages have | |
been the reasons for not transferring this patient and therefore the death of this patient should | |
be attributed to the present mismanagement of health resources. | |
Pat Atkinson, Minster of Health, has come to the defence of the Regina Health District, and | |
"... was being too busy to really listen, to really hear, all the legitimate concerns facing nurses and other health care workers..." | referring to a previous government report into another similar death(2), has stated that the patient |
was not transferred to Regina because his doctors failed to clearly indicate the urgency of the | |
case. After not accepting responsibilities for the current mess in health care, Pat Atkinson is | |
telling the doctors that the number of calls or efforts to have a patient transferred are not adequate, | |
what is required is that the doctors are precise in their communication of the acuity of the patient's | |
needs. Now, in order to appreciate the sincerity of Pat Atkinson's statements in shifting the blame | |
against the doctors, we can refer to her hypocritical statement when she said that our bureaucracy | |
"... was being too busy to really listen, to really hear, all the legitimate concerns facing nurses and | |
other health care workers..."(3), and to her support for the $50 million overrun for the closure of | |
the plains Health Centre(4). | |
we don't need to be clearly or scientifically precise to do our jobs(5), we just need to be competent | Dear Honourable Pat Atkinson, who are you trying to kid anymore? Why don't you just take |
your own responsibilities and serve decently the public? I tell you that we don't need to be | |
clearly or scientifically precise to do our jobs(5), we just need to be competent, have common | |
sense, be good willing and be able to work with our partners, why don't you? | |
--------------Endnotes: | |
Death result of shortages: SMA head, by Barb Pacholik, January 15, 2000, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
Government report on the death of Wayne Gawdun. This death occurred on October 1, 1997 at a Yorkton hospital while Wayne Gawdun was waiting for a transfer to a Regina hospital. | |
News Release dated Apr 12, 1999, Health 99 - 287, MINISTER APPEALS TO NURSES, letter dated 11 April 1999 from Health Minister Pat Atkinson to Saskatchewan Union of Nurses President Rosalee Longmoore http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/1999Apr/287.99041205.html | |
The closure of the Plains Health Centre: The $50 million overrun and the gimmick of savings money in health care, by Mario deSantis, December 19, 1999 | |
Fragmented Research comes to the help of Saskatchewan Reform, by Mario deSantis, September 28, 1999 |