The provincial government’s transformational change in the health-care sector began last week with Health Minister Dustin Duncan announcing the appointment of a three-person advisory panel.
The make up of this panel indicates they will be heading down a preconceived path that has been well marked for them by the ministry and the Sask. Party government.
We are willing to bet, even at this early stage in the quest for change in the health sector, there will be no radical deviations from a predetermined plan.
The panelists are loyal advocates of the Sask. Party way of doing things already.
Or, as Rick Swenson, the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Sask., put it more succinctly, the panel is an example of the premier’s office needing to micromanage the process.
Two of the appointees are Sask. Party appointees to health regions and the third was appointed by the Sask. Party in another area of health care.
The trio will be hard-pressed to assure any sense of neutrality heading into the process.
Their recommendations will lead to fewer health regions within a year, a lot fewer appointed regional board members and about a dozen fewer well-paid CEOs and a few dozen less regional presidents and vice-presidents, and a lot more of these types taking up office spaces in Regina and Saskatoon.
The easiest and most obvious recommendation will be the termination of regional health boards where the appointed members will be given pink slips.
These boards have not cost taxpayers a lot of money, but nor have they been required to do that much either. Their duties, at least in the local region, have pretty well been confined to approving motions that have been prepared for them in advance, attending subcommittee meetings and listening to reports from the CEO and other management personnel who fill them in on what has already transpired. They deliberately shy away from meaningful debates, discussions or negotiations while engaged in their occasional public business sessions. Since all board members are avowed Sask. Party loyalists, nothing more can be expected from them. They have not been placed at the board table to question. They were appointed to agree with the edicts that come to them from the government and the ministry via their CEOs. These are jobs that can be eliminated without much fuss, especially since they are there at the pleasure of the government, not through any democratic process.
Their removal though and the spectre of moving into even larger health region configurations leaves those of us in the so-called ‘rural’ areas of Saskatchewan (meaning places that aren’t Saskatoon or Regina) with an uneasy feeling of losing even more voice within a continually growing, administration-heavy, health care industry. In other words, who will speak up to question and, if necessary, fight for rural voices to be heard? Keep in mind our rural MLAs are Sask. Party representatives with huge majorities and votes of confidence from Saskatchewan’s rural residents. They can do no wrong in the minds of the electorate, and, therefore, these MLAs will be loath to defy orders emanating from party headquarters.
So,who will serve the voices in the wilderness?
That will be up to the trio of panelists to recommend and, as noted earlier, they too will be carrying the will of the government, not necessarily the will of the unwashed public.
At least there is one positive note to be struck within this unfolding map … the government, in their wisdom, decided not to place the transformational change in health care in the hands of John Black and Associates for their Lean version of effectiveness. We can be thankful for some small mercies.
