New health district board members who will be voted in this Oct. 22 should have an easier time of it, say past members of the Saskatchewan boards.
It was “very stressful” doing the work the past four years especially when it came to closing hospitals or nursing homes or reducing services, said Marion Gatsky, retiring as chair of the Parkland District Health Board in north-central Saskatchewan.
Betty Shapka, chair of the Greenhead district in northwestern Saskatchewan, said: “We used to start every meeting with letters critical of us. Now, we don’t get as many.”
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And Bernice MacDougall, retiring as chair of the South East District Health Board, said the first few months were difficult, not only due to public pressure but also because the whole process was new and the boards had to stumble their way along.
Interest in health reform
The women said they wanted to be on the first boards because they had an interest in health reform, or had worked in hospitals or served on former hospital boards. In 1995, Saskatchewan became the first province to hold district health board elections. It set up boards of 12 members, eight of whom are elected and four appointed.
This fall marks the second round of elections with 168 candidates for 22 of the 29 health districts.
The vote is only for the four seats per district represented by even-numbered wards. Odd-numbered wards will be elected in future years to ensure a continuity and overlap of experience.
Gatsky said the experience was both time consuming and thought provoking, and the district has now consolidated health care and reduced duplication. Her board’s biggest challenges will be the recruitment and retention of doctors in small rural areas, liaison with aboriginals and communicating with a scattered population over a 17,000 kilometre area.
Shapka said of Greenhead’s first board: “We made mistakes. We thought we were consulting enough and we weren’t. We’ve turned that around. We consult more.”
Challenges ahead
In addition to keeping up the communication process, she said her district’s biggest challenge will be to “keep things moving and rolling on all fronts,” especially two recent construction projects. She said the health districts have been assured funding from the province will be stable “but you never know until the budget comes out.”
Moving on with several projects to market health care to neighboring districts and the United States should be the challenge for the South East district’s new board, said MacDougall.
About funding, she said boards can always use more money but some shortages were relieved by working out an agreement with district doctors to visit some communities that have no doctor.
While all three said gender was not an issue for them, women chair a third of the boards and represented half of all the elected members. Shapka said it’s understandable why women are present on these boards.
“If you have a full-time job like most men who are the breadwinners, it would be hard to find the time to be on the board.”
