Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN):
Board Chair Grossman and CEO Lipon disagree while fattening their bellies

   
Nipawin - Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis
 
 

every
day

We have reached the understanding that in the current breakdown of our democracy we cannot let our great leaders make decisions and then blame them for making mistakes. Today more than ever we as individuals and collective people must express our citizenship every day as our leaders have created a world so compartmentalized and alienated from the common people that only the supposed experts can understand it. I disagree with these experts as these experts either by agreeing among themselves or disagreeing among themselves are building in concert with our politicians an autocratic and oligarchic social setting.

 

 

looking
after
#1

Since 1997 I have addressed the squandering of money allocated for the building of the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN), then as I was unable to have any attention in this issue I went on to tackle other social issues. But all these social issues have a common denominator, that is the unwillingness to change our mentality which for too long has been focused too much on 'looking after #1' at the expense of people at large. This 'looking after #1' mentality is entrenched in our Saskatchewan health care system; our leaders can agree or they can disagree among each other but the bottom line is always the same: going happily to the bank and fatten their bellies as they deceive people at large.

 

 

wider
issue

There is no way anymore to point out the mistakes we make because as we fix our mistakes we create many more mistakes. So our social problems are not really anymore of pointing out mistakes and blame the related leaders for these mistakes. Our main social problem is to identify the inadequacy of the social economic gospel to look after #1.

sacred
cow



Going back to the SHIN health network I have pointed out in my writing how this 'treasury board crown corporation' was created with the participation of health care guru Brian Rourke and Saskatchewan Health. It is my understanding that SHIN has behaved as a sacred cow to abscond the incompetence of our health care leadership. Let me just say that while the main goal of the network was to build a centralized medical information system for all Saskatchewan residents, this network project was used to divert money into many other areas such as coping with the Y2K nightmare and the many Telehealth blunders.

Shelly
Lipon


Now I am going to give you examples highlighting the exasperating mentality of the SHIN leaders as they continue to deceive the public, go to the bank and fatten their bellies. Some $50 million dollars could have already been misspent on this Saskatchewan hole in the ground. Now understand what SHIN's CEO Shelly Lipon has been recently saying about the progress of the SHIN's project

"It is a huge undertaking. There's cost issues, there's privacy issues, there's control issues."

Jack
Grossman



Now match your understanding of what Shelly Lipon said to what SHIN's board chair Jack Grossman has stated

"I am proud of the advancements SHIN and Saskatchewan are making in a fiscally responsible manner to enhance patient care both in Saskatchewan and across this country."

   

nightmare

As you can find out both of these two guys are leaders in the SHIN's nightmare, they are both experts, they both disagree, and they both go to the bank fattening their bellies.
   
---------------References
  Health database for province behind schedule and overbudget, CEO says, by Jason Warick, November 30, 2001, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
   
  SHIN making excellent progress, by Jack Grossman, Board Chair for SHIN, December 5, 2001 The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
   
  Never enough money for SAHO (Brian Rourke), by Mario deSantis, March 30, 1999
   
  A Historical Perspective of The Saskatchewan Health Information Network, by Mario deSantis and James deSantis, March 1998http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-SHIN.htm
   
  A question for Minister of Health Pat Atkinson: How much money is costing Telehealth? By Mario deSantis, March 15, 2000
   
  Saskatchewan Health Information Network: Gord Nystuen leaves his post to cover his assets, by Mario deSantis, October 23, 1999
   
  Health Reform in Saskatchewan: Digging Holes in the Ground, by Mario deSantis and reviewed by James deSantis, October 20, 1999