| Health Reform in Saskatchewan: Digging Holes in the Ground | |
| By Mario deSantis and reviewed by James deSantis, October 22, 1999 | |
| In Saskatchewan we don't have a vision for health(1) and we don't have The | |
| short-term management of confusion | Saskatchewan Way either. What we have is an undemocratic government who | 
| unable to direct our economic system is spearheading a short-term management of | |
| confusion and restructuring where only the strongest, the biggest, the most powerful | |
| and the most reactionary survive. In this environment, the secret to survival is not in | |
| creating wealth, but in having more taxpayer money to dig holes in the ground But | |
| to dig holes in the ground is not an easy proposition for this government; in fact, the | |
| digging must be justified by serious and expensive researches. Such researches not only | |
| has to firstly justify the digging of the biggest and deepest hole in the ground, but later | |
| they must conduct comparative studies to check if more money can be saved by digging | |
| more holes over the alternative of digging fewer and deeper holes. | |
| The biggest and deepest hole in the ground was conceptualized in 1995 when | |
| the largest information technology ever mandated in the province | Saskatchewan Health and the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations | 
| presented the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN) as "...the largest | |
| information technology ever mandated in the province...". The integrity of the SHIN | |
| project was supported by a research conducted by Ernst & Young which identified | |
| paper savings in the order of $58 to $114 Million. | |
| The most recent proposals for digging holes in the ground have been expressed by the | |
| having full-service regional hospitals | wish of Pat Atkinson, Minister of Health, to have fewer and fully appointed health boards | 
| and by Jim Melenchuk, Minister of Education, who wants to cut the 25,000 people on | |
| elective surgical waiting lists by having full-service regional hospitals and by taking money | |
| away from SHIN. The eventual bigness and depth of these proposed holes will be a | |
| matter of debate and compromise since many agencies are asking for more money from the | |
| government | |
| The government has specifically planned the downsizing of our healthcare people> on | |
| healthcare will continue to deteriorate | behalf of capital projects such as SHIN, and now it is experiencing the highest | 
| percentage governmental expenditure in health care. The government doesn't know that | |
| people are the only creative resource, and as long as restructuring and obsolete capital | |
| projects are put before people, healthcare will continue to deteriorate and biased | |
| researches will no longer salvage these policies and this government. | |
| ------------Endnotes: | |
| The Saga of Health Reform: Pat Atkinson Wants Fewer Health Boards and Fully Appointed Boards, by Mario deSantis, October 17, 1999 | |
| The Saskatchewan Way by Timothy W. Shire, August 26, 1999 | |
| Governmental coalition in saskatchewan: a private contractual deal at the expense of the electorate? By Mario deSantis, October 4, 1999 | |
| Conversation Paper on Economic Policies: Meeting of July 15, 1996 between Brian Rourke, Chairperson of SAHO, Arliss Wright, President and CEO of SAHO, and Mario deSantis of DigiCare. http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/Paper-ConversationSAHO-Jl12-96.htm | |
| Managing Information Technology-A Vision for the Future-Information Technology Architecture. Page 1.2, Saskatchewan Health, April 1995. Also, refer to 1995 Saskatchewan Health & SAHO request of proposal for SHIN | |
| A Historical Perspective of The Saskatchewan Health Information Network, by Mario deSantis and James deSantis, March 1998 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-SHIN.htm | |
| Review of Economic Soundness of the Implementation of the Saskatchewan Healthcare Systems Architecture, by Mario deSantis, June 21, 1995 http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/desam/paper-HealthRefSystArchB-Jn21-95.htm | |
| Health reform lurks, by Mark Wyatt, The StarPhoenix, October 14, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
| Liberal health plan a go? by James Parker, The StarPhoenix, October 19, 1999, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | |
| What Happened to the Saskatchewan Health Information Network (SHIN)? By Mario deSantis, June 11, 1999 | |
| The Regina Health Board, after overspending some $40 Million for hospitals' renovation and experiencing an operational deficit of $4.7 Million, is asking for more money from the government. CBC Radio, John Weidlich, October 20, 99 http://www.sask.cbc.ca/radio/index-news.html | |
| The Saskatchewan Government and SAHO: Mismanaging Health Care and Blackmailing SUN Nurses, by Mario deSantis, May 9, 1999 | |
| Technological Changes In Saskatchewan Health Care: An Abysmal Disaster, by Mario deSantis, May 27, 1999 | |
| Business Process Reengineering from the Perspective of Competitive Advantage, by Edwin B. Dean http://mijuno.larc.nasa.gov/dfc/bpre.html | |
| Fragmented Research Come To The Help Of Sasktchewan Reform, by Mario deSantis, September 28, 1999 | |