Acting Provincial Auditor Judy Ferguson had some direct criticism for the provincial government in Volume 2 of the 2013 auditor's report to the legislature last week.
Ferguson also took note of some weaknesses in the Sun Country Health Region in terms of medication management practices, which were spelled out in the report.
Ferguson took over from former provincial auditor Bonnie Lysyk, who also signed off on the adverse opinion report filed by Ferguson who has taken an even deeper issue with the provincial government's propensity to keep two sets of books.
The Summary Financial Statements financial report that includes the business of the Crown corporations and pension debts etc., is the best way to move forward with transparency, she suggested.
However, the provincial governments, (present and past) have had a tendency to prefer using a General Revenue Fund model that doesn't include Crown business within its parameters, but rather adds or subtracts from it, and doesn't book liabilities that come with the costs of the construction of schools and hospitals as another example. These long- term debts of over $270 million are not suitably accounted for in the GRF model, she said.
Ferguson said the capital assets are being mishandled too, along with a $42 million mishandling of the Growth and Financial Security Fund.
In the area of her report that deals with more specific items, Ferguson said that due to the importance medications play in the health-care system, it was imperative that Sun Country's two district hospitals, Weyburn General and St. Joseph's in Estevan, handle their medication dispensing processes a little more carefully.
Ferguson said the two hospitals "had effective processes for managing medications except for three areas needing improvement. First, Sun Country needs to follow its policies for after-hours pharmacy access and medication disposal. Second, Sun Country needs to use its approved form to document patient medication history and weight. Third, in order to develop action plans to address issues related to medication errors, Sun Country needs to analyze those errors, the factors that contributed to them, and identify any reoccurring trends."
The report included several other critiques for other sectors such as livestock waste regulations in the Ministry of Agriculture, shortfalls in landfill regulations through the Ministry of the Environment, and failures in triaging emergency patients in the Saskatoon Health Region, as just some examples.
