Wawota Save Our Beds update.
One year ago, the Sun Country Health Board shocked the people of Wawota by suddenly closing five beds at the Deer View Lodge facility in town. There was immediate and strong outrage to this move, leading to the formation of the Wawota Save Our Beds Committee to seek reversal of that decision. Despite both public and private meetings, discussions with local MLAs and communication with the Premier's office, the beds remain closed.
On Friday Apr. 8, at the Council Chambers in Carlyle, the eight members of the Wawota committee were invited to meet with the Board of Directors of Sun Country. Earlier in the day, Dale Easton, chair of the Wawota committee had told The Observer, "I may have some news for you." Clearly he was hoping for something positive.
Unfortunately, the news is not good. While the entire Wawota group attended the meeting, the same cannot be said of "the powers that be" at Sun Country Health. Only four of their people showed up, namely the CEO, Chairperson, and two other board members. When the Wawota group questioned this, they were told that partial board representation at such events was normal. Surely this is not what our government representatives expected when they encouraged board-on-board meetings to resolve the issue of the closed beds at Deer View Lodge.
The meeting had been called by Sun Country, who gave no indication in advance as to what they would tell the members of the Wawota group. As it turned out, if Wawota expected success in their campaign to re-open the beds, they were to be disappointed. If they hoped for respect, they were to find that Sun Country didn't deliver that either. "We wanted to record the meeting" Easton explains, "but they said there was no need." In hindsight he adds, "That was our first mistake."
Sun Country opened the meeting by asking how the Wawota people thought they, the health board, could help with health care for Deer View and the people. The question shocked the members from Wawota who have battled with the board for a year with one singular purpose. Despite the redundant question, the answer was quick to come. "Put the beds back."
"We can't do that." Sun Country retorted, adding, "There must be some things we can do about needs assessment." That was the second shock for Wawota. "It was bizarre," said Easton. "Here we are, four farmers, a lumberyard operator, a hotel manager, a greenhouse owner and a housewife, and they brought us here to ask for a needs assessment?" He added, "Don't they have people they pay to do that?"
The committee wonders what Sun Country hoped to achieve in this meeting. Was it called to somehow convince Wawota they'd not forgotten about them? Did they really not understand the core issue? "It was as if they were insulting our intelligence." Easton said.
And so, the Wawota group attempted to return to the real matter on hand. "We went through the numbers once again," Easton says. "We tried to show them that Deer View needs more than the original thirty-five beds, not less." But the argument apparently fell on deaf ears, with Sun Country bringing up a private nursing home that had closed a decade and a half ago.
In the end the Sun Country representatives communicated the simple answer. There would be no reversal of the decision and no compromise. The decision made a year ago would stand. They also added that rather than re-opening the beds, they intended to increase the provision of homecare for the area. "That's ridiculous," says Easton. "We can't get people to work after 4 p.m. now; they already don't have enough employees for that."
Shortly afterward the meeting broke up. The CEO of Sun Country had remained silent the whole time, and the members of the Wawota group were disgusted. "It was another great blunder by the chairperson and the board." said Easton.
As a follow up, Easton contacted members of Sun Country's Board who had not shown up at the meeting. He was told that although these people did know about the meeting, they had neither been told of its intended subject matter, nor issued with an instruction to attend. "The board does not function as a board," says Easton, who sees the whole fiasco as further evidence of the inability of the current regime at Sun Country to truly serve the people of this area.
And so, fornow, the beds remain closed. The beautiful, well-appointed rooms that could be serving the needs of the community and alleviating the pressure on the facility at Moosomin, remain silent. The beds are there, the staff is there, but the seniors that need to be there are not.
One thing is for sure, the people of Wawota and the members of the Save Our Beds Committee will not be giving up. If there is one positive to come out of this ongoing situation, it is the coming together of a proud community who continue to demonstrate that they have "the right stuff."
