More than three years after an independent probe dissected the now-defunct NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority, dragging to the surface all manner of worrisome revelations, Flin Flon area residents have every right to expect dramatic improvements in the quality of health care they receive.
Unfortunately, as a recently released review of the emergency departments in Flin Flon and The Pas illustrates, there is still a ways to go.
A survey of Flin Flon and The Pas residents, conducted for the review, revealed accounts of misdiagnoses and of patients left feeling as though their symptoms had been minimized.
The independent review found that individuals of varying professional backgrounds believed some ER physicians lacked up-to-date medical knowledge and clinical skills.
Although the physicians had taken courses in advanced cardiac life support and pediatric advanced life support, some had little experience and guidance in applying this knowledge, the review stated.
Why, we must ask, are such findings still being uncovered after so much apparent effort to right the health care ship in
Flin Flon?
In the interest of fairness, we must first acknowledge that appraising the quality of physicians is a tricky business. Even Flin Flon’s most esteemed doctors over the years have been both vilified for failing to detect a serious ailment and celebrated as lifesaving supermen.
That said, in Flin Flon and The Pas even the independent reviewers were concerned by the lack of insight into personal learning needs displayed by some (not all) ER physicians.
Though officials have pledged to fill in skill gaps within the ERs, working with the doctors as needed, the very fact that the situation reached this point raises troubling questions about proper oversight.
Lack of cohesion
If all of this weren’t enough, workplace cohesion still appears problematic in the two ERs, or at least did at the time of the review in November 2013.
To wit, the review describes conflict between ER staff members, nurses feeling that doctors are not always open to collegial input, and physicians sensing that nurses do not accept them as respected practitioners.
Again, let us acknowledge that most workplaces, particularly highly stressful ones, contain some level of antagonism.
But when the problem may be marring the teamwork capabilities within an ER – where lives can be saved or lost depending on thousands of minute factors – there can be little tolerance for such conduct.
Workplace conflict was among the dominant themes of the 2011 review of the NOR-MAN RHA. The resultant report spoke of frequent “bullying comments” between staff and described an “atmosphere of fear and intimidation” at the Flin Flon hospital.
Steps taken by NOR-MAN, and the Northern Health Region that has since absorbed it, have plainly failed to resolve challenges within the work environment.
New approaches to these problems must be tirelessly monitored to ensure effectiveness. All staff, regardless of position or tenure, must be put on notice that more of the same will never again be accepted.
When it comes to remedying all of what ails emergency health care in Flin Flon, the continued involvement of third-party reviewers is imperative.
Only through an objective lens can we truly learn in the coming weeks and months whether real advances are being realized.
And only then can Flin Flon area residents, many of whom have limited faith in our emergency health care, begin to rebuild their trust.
