Royal University Hospital: |
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Nipawin - October 24, 2000 - by: Mario deSantis | |
rewire |
I am overwhelmed by the degree of corruption and incompetence shown by our politicians |
and health care leaders, in this province and across Canada as well. Yesterday, I apologized | |
to Mr. Warren Lindberg for questioning the numbers he used to justify the re-dimensioning | |
of our health districts(1). I certainly don't agree with the isolated perception that we would | |
save more money by reducing the number of districts when our own Tin Pot Dictators are | |
incompetent and cover their assets by continuously shifting the blame to either other people | |
or to inadequate organizational settings. Before we reorganize our health care settings and | |
change the number of districts, it is imperative that we must rewire the minds of our Tin Pot | |
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Dictators. |
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obsolete |
I agree with Mr. Lindberg that our health care is mismanaged, however the root of the |
problem is not in finding the right number of districts, and it is not in my recently expressed | |
perception that the problem is in the misspending of our health care dollars(2). The problem | |
of health care is rooted in the obsolete mind set of our politicians and health care leaders. | |
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without |
When we go shopping as individual consumers we are welcome by the businesses with the |
slogan "satisfaction guaranteed". But what about health care? No, we don't have the right | |
to "satisfaction guaranteed", we have the regressive right to express our complaints to "the | |
health care complaints department." The pursuing of the health care "satisfaction guaranteed" | |
is relegated to our health researchers who use their MEANS to satisfy the ENDS set up by our | |
politicians and health care leaders(3). The result is that many health specialists leave the | |
province(4) and the sold out researchers continue to stay and support the ENDS of our | |
politicians and health care leaders. And you know how our leadership covers up their | |
misdeeds? They say, 'management is our job and your health care workers shut up and | |
do your work in accordance to the collective agreement.' And if you don't have the protection | |
of a collective agreement, then watch out, our leaders have the power to fire people and they | |
do it, without mercy, and myself and all of my family know it. | |
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still |
I am happy today to read that our common people are speaking out beyond their "collective |
agreement" and are beginning to question our Tin Pot Dictators. Today's (October 20, 2000) | |
StarPhoenix reports that a $7.5 million computer system purchased for Royal University | |
Hospital (RUH) 11 months ago still doesn't work(5). Barbara Abel, president of the local | |
SUN union, says | |
computer equipment |
"People are very frustrated. Money is being wasted that should be going toward patient care. We don't have enough front-line workers, yet we can throw money away on computer equipment that doesn't work. They've become coat hangers and dust collectors. It's such a waste of time and money. Nobody is accountable." |
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Y2K nightmare |
Congratulations to Barber Abel for speaking out and highlight the root of the problem in |
health care in very simple terms "Nobody is accountable." And that is the truth, nobody | |
is accountable, including Steve Hardcastle, vice president of the Saskatoon District Health. | |
I remember some two years ago when Hardcastle stated that his district was facing a $30 | |
million bill to prepare for the Y2K nightmare. At that time Hardcastle stated | |
funding |
"If an appropriate level of funding was in place to deal with this issue over the past few years, (Y2K) wouldn't have had such a large financial impact in the last year or year and a half(6) " |
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Therefore, Hardcastle made the hard decision to immediately cope with the Y2K problem |
by buying $7.5 million computer supplies from American companies. And this $7.5 million | |
blunder is just the tip of the iceberg(7), and where is Mr. Hardcastle now? | |
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Quadramed |
He is covering his asset by shifting the blame of this disaster of his own making to |
Quadramed, an American company which doesn't want to do business in Canada anymore. | |
Says neuroscience ward nurse Dennis Dombowsky | |
millions |
"We're upset. It takes time away from our patients. We've got millions of dollars of computers sitting there, and they are not even turned on." |
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nobody is accountable |
Democracy is not voting or belonging to a party, democracy starts with us as common |
individuals, by being socially accountable for our own and other people's well-being. | |
Therefore, we praise both Barber Abel and Dennis Dombowsky for letting us know again | |
that there is a lack of democracy and that "nobody is accountable" in health care. | |
----------References/Endnotes: | |
List of articles by Mario deSantis | |
Too many health districts, managers, by Warren Lindberg, Readers' Opinions, The StarPhoenix, October 11, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
Gov't health spending root of problem, by Mario deSantis, Readers' Opinions, The StarPhoenix, October 17, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
Our biased researches are only a symptom of our authorities' corruption: the only remedies are assertion of individual rights and judicial independence, by Mario deSantis, September 27, 2000 | |
The Mismanagement Saga in Health Care, by Mario deSantis, October 17, 2000 | |
Hospital's $7.5-million computers unusable: Terminals clutter nurses' stations as staff wait for software, by Jason Warick, October 20, 2000, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
The culprit of the Y2K Nightmare in Health Care is plain Corruption! By Mario deSantis, January 20, 1999 | |
Saskatchewan Health Care: Confirmation Of The Most Mismanaged System In Canada, by Mario deSantis, October 12, 2000 |