The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
By Jonathon Naylor According to Theresa Oswald, it is "clear" that the NRHA's plan to open a clinic inside the Flin Flon General Hospital "lacked appropriate consultation with the community." Ms. Oswald, the provincial health minister, made this obvious-to-everyone-outside-government statement in a letter to the editor published in this newspaper on Wednesday. But if she believes what she says to be true, why did she and her government not only endorse, but agree to fully fund, the new clinic eight months ago? For Ms. Oswald to criticize the NRHA now, mere weeks before the $1.13-million clinic opens, is an embarrassing case of too little, too late. Out of respect for taxpayers and their money, the province should have ensured "appropriate consultation" occurred before it poured cash into a project that may or may not have community support. Concern Belated or not, Ms. Oswald is right to express concern over the process through which the NRHA decided to enter the clinic business. Leading up to the official announcement of the new clinic on March 30, 2010, there appears to be just one notable public mention that this move was even being contemplated (not including the open-to-the-public NRHA board meetings, which surely took up the topic). That would be a brief Reminder article from January of this year in which a hospital-based clinic was mentioned as a possibility. At the time, the NRHA said it was "looking at alternative options" for the clinic, including a new location. The notion of the clinic moving inside the hospital came from outside sources who contacted The Reminder, not the NRHA itself. When the formal announcement of the hospital-based clinic came, some residents were exasperated. Over the loss of a ground-level clinic. Over what they saw as a duplication of a facility that already exists. And over fears that little good can come from Big Government assuming full control of a service. (The present clinic is a private operation). In fairness, other residents were quite supportive of the decision and others were indifferent. The point is that nobody ever really got the chance to provide their input, pro or con, or to put forth queries. Having said all of this, it is not clear that "appropriate consultation" would have meant a different outcome. After all, the NRHA expects the new clinic will save money and is hopeful the facility will help lure and retain doctors. If either scenario proves true Ð and that remains to be seen Ð it will be welcomed by many taxpayers and patients. Forum What was also welcome was the public health forum that was slated to take place at the R.H. Channing Auditorium on Wednesday evening, after The Reminder went to press. The forum, organized independently of the NRHA but with health officials present, was a much-needed chance for citizens to obtain answers to the major health-care questions of the day. Why don't we have more fee-for-service doctors, who tend to see the most patients, instead of contract doctors, who see only a limited number? Why are so many services concentrated in The Pas? Why doesn't our hospital's chief of staff live in Flin Flon? Exercises such as the forum serve to bolster transparency within our all-important health-care system. We need more of them. At the same time, Ms. Oswald is to be applauded for asking a third party to conduct an operational review of the NRHA. As she politely phrased it, the review will "assist NOR-MAN RHA with improving community engagement and public communications." When it comes to health services and tax dollars, "appropriate consultation" is not a frill to be fretted about months after the fact, but a necessity. Ms. Oswald, the provincial government and the NRHA need to learn from the clinic episode. Local Angle runs Fridays.
