The Mismanagement Saga in Health Care |
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Nipawin - October 22, 2000 - by: Mario deSantis | |
the system |
Finally there is convergence of opinion about health care and I am pleased to recognize that |
The StarPhoenix along with many researchers across Canada come aboard with our ancient | |
and reiterating opinion that our health care system is mismanaged. In the Health system | |
bows to market(1) we find the nightmare we are presently undergoing: the departure of | |
neurosurgeons, of anesthesiologists, of pediatricians and other medical specialists. And to | |
summarize our Saskatchewan's scenario, the authors of this article state that while commissioner | |
Ken Fyke is busy asking ordinary residents on how to reform the system, the system is | |
reforming itself in response to economic market forces. Also, these authors state that we | |
need new leaders who can prescribe strong medicine rather than "push more placebos in | |
the form of poorly designed health districts or meaningless studies." | |
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leadership |
Commissioner Ken Fyke has not understood yet that the health care problems are of a |
leadership and structural nature and has creatively stated "We can pay for the service | |
by raising taxes through the public sector, we can bring additional revenue in through | |
premiums, or... user fees(2) ." In the meantime the commissioner will be sending 400,000 | |
surveys to Saskatchewan homes, as well as holding TV forums, maintaining a web site, and | |
setting up a 1-800 number(3) . Just to have an indication of one direct cost of this study | |
we can multiply the 400,000 surveys by the nominal unit cost of $1 per survey and we | |
have a cost of $400,000. And I am not sure if these $400,000 are part of Ken Fyke's | |
$2 million budget. | |
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waiting |
Dr. John Horne, a Winnipeg health economist and advisor to the Canadian Institute for |
Health Information, has said "We know we have too few nurses coast to coast. We have | |
too few physicians, particularly specialty physicians. We have too few pharmacists, too | |
few lab technologists, too few ultrasound techs and respiratory techs. There's an emerging | |
shortage of health care workers(4)." In the last three years health care spending has increased | |
by 22% yet our surgical waiting times have increased, and they are still increasing in | |
Saskatchewan(5). | |
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capital equipment funding |
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information most of the new spending |
has been used on capital projects. Dr. Brent Burbridge, head of medical imaging for the | |
College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, said there is a "gross deficit" | |
of capital equipment funding in many provinces. "Things are desperate. I don't believe | |
we are providing state of the art care here, I can tell you that. And that's because we don't | |
have the most current equipment(6)." | |
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misuse of |
In the last years we have experienced the downsizing of our health facilities, and as a |
consequence a sizeable portion of the above mentioned 22% increase in health care | |
spending has been allocated for the implementation of obsolete Information Technology | |
systems. And in Saskatchewan this system is called the Saskatchewan Health Information | |
System (SHIN), a system which has pumped approximately $40 million into the sewage(7), | |
not to speak about the lateral and consequential misuse of health resources. | |
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saga of |
The saga of health care mismanagement is continuing and we will be ready to tell you |
additional stories. | |
------------References/Endnotes: | |
Health system bows to market, OPINIONS, October 13, 2000, The StarPhoenix, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
First report outlines health care challenges, CBC Saskatchewan, http://sask.cbc.ca Web Posted | Oct 6 2000 9:35 PM EDT | |
First report outlines health care challenges, CBC Saskatchewan, http://sask.cbc.ca Web Posted | Oct 6 2000 9:35 PM EDT | |
$64-billion insufficient to stop bleeding, Brad Evenson, National Post, October 12, 2000 | |
Surgical waiting game continues: Former task force members lament slow progress in shortening province's waiting lists, by Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix, October 14, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
X-Ray Labs dangerously outdated. Radiologists sound alarm: Equipment so archaic that even Cambodian refugee camp doesn't want it, Tom Arnold, National Post, October 12, 2000 | |
Saskatchewan Health Care: Confirmation Of The Most Mismanaged System In Canada, by Mario deSantis, October 12, 2000 |