Tired of waiting

By Ivan Morgan

Very early in my career, fresh out of university, I was working at a government agency and was asked by my boss to take minutes at a senior mangers meeting. At the meeting those assembled were told to find savings in their departments. They needed to cut the budget to save money. I was in my 20s, hadn’t been there long, but being my businessman father’s son, I immediately saw where money could be saved. I was sitting in a room full of well-paid managers who I had observed, in the short time I was working there, didn’t do very much. I had been there long enough, however, to have a good idea how to save money, but didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to get fired from my first “real” job.
I thought of that long ago meeting recently when I read government was going to conduct a comprehensive review of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS) to “build on the progress that has been made since its creation two years ago.” (How do the people who write this stuff sleep at night?)
As a reminder, NLHS is an amalgamation of all the bloated, failing regional health boards into one big bloated, failing provincial health board.
What wowed me was they are going to use in-house folks to conduct the review! Just like 40 years ago the problem was tasked with solving the problem.
I once worked for a highly principled MHA who would stand in the House of Assembly during Question Period and ask government for an independent third-party review of our health care system. Government at the time would mock her and ignore her request.
We need an independent review. If you are buying a house, one of life’s major investments, do you rely on the sellers to provide an appraisal or do you hire an independent assessor to tell you about what you are buying? Remember nearly 40 percent of our provincial budget is spent on health care.
I can hear knowledgeable folks saying Morgan is using a simplistic example, it’s not that straightforward. Yes, it is.
We need an independent, third party, reliable, cold-eyed assessment of what we are paying for and how to fix it. We are not going to get it from this crowd.
You want one? You’re the one with the vote.
I am sure the people government has chosen are all good, capable, competent folks. But the process has to be independent. It just does.
This isn’t a study. This is political window dressing for the upcoming election. If Opposition criticizes government on health care? Well, comes the response, it’s currently under comprehensive review. Let’s wait to hear what they say (after the election).
Does the current government think you’re that gullible? The finance minister gave a financial update recently to tell us how well the Province is doing. Seriously.
My prediction? The review will come out. There will be recommendations. The report will then sit on a shelf and on hard drives being ignored just like so many other health care reports before it.
The only thing they will all have in common is you paid for them. Just like you pay to sit in the emergency room for hours watching suffering people and overworked staff try to cope. Just like you pay to not be able to find a family doctor. Just like you pay to wait months, if not years, to see a specialist to address your heath issue. Need I go on?
Helpfully, I am writing this is as I sit in an emergency room (I’m fine, I am here supporting someone else) on hour 16 of our wait. Folks here are angry, but the people responsible are home in their beds, not running around harried and overworked. I would be delighted to be corrected but I am guessing our reviewers won’t be spending night after night in emergency. I am willing to bet they all have family doctors. Membership has its privileges.
So as a free public service, I thought I would offer these folks, hand picked by their political masters and on the taxpayers’ dime, a signpost, a hint, a push in the right direction as they roll up their sleeves to tackle the assigned task of reviewing health care in this place.
IT DOESN’T WORK!
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com