High time to reform the health care reform

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Published: April 1, 1999

THERE has been a spate of political meetings in our area.

The Saskatchewan Party held a nomination meeting, the NDP had a fund raiser, and the Saskatchewan Party held one of a series of meetings on health care.

When the NDP government closed 52 rural hospitals in 1993, a lot of people thought that was health care reform. How wrong they were.

Health care reform is still with us. That’s why the Saskatchewan Party is holding its meetings. That’s why the speakers at the NDP fund-raiser and the Saskatchewan Party nomination meeting, including no less personages than premier Roy Romanow and Saskatchewan Party leader Elwin Hermanson, spent a lot of their time talking about health care.

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In his speech, Romanow said he doesn’t know why health spending is up this year.

I wanted desperately to give him an example of why this is so.

In November, following a medical procedure in Saskatoon, I ended up in our local health centre where the doctor put me on IV. After a few hours, I was able to eat, something I hadn’t been able to do for three days.

I felt better, physically and mentally.

But, thanks to our government, we have a health centre not a hospital and our doctor could only keep me in an observation bed for 24 hours. I needed more.

So, it was off to Saskatoon, by ambulance, a trip that cost me more than $500.

At great expense to the taxpayers, I spent three days in Royal University Hospital, on IV which, were it not for the rules, could have been administered at home, and on pills that could also have been administered at home, our local druggist having an ample supply.

Once home, I phoned the health district CEO. I said it would have been cheaper for me to pay to be in a respite bed. The answer was, not possible, that’s a two-tier system.

I wrote to several cabinet ministers and the premier. To date, only one cabinet minister has replied and he said he was sending the letter to the health minister for a more complete answer. Her only reply to date has been silence.

Until recently, the premier has been saying there will be an election in June or October of this year. Now he is saying “or June, 2000” because, he says, he won’t have an election while negotiations with health care unions are ongoing. This is not altruism. It is good politics.

The premier said his government has made mistakes in health reform.

My reply, having been through the system, is that nothing is being done to correct those mistakes.

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