Kerry Nation — Decter’s ideas on Brandon RHA need to be examined

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/07/2011 (5573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week, in the aftermath of the recent suicide at the Brandon Regional Health Centre, the war of words escalated between Dr. Derry Decter and Brandon RHA’s CEO Brian Schoonbaert.

After Decter’s public statements about the suicide, and seeing a Sun editorial on the matter, Schoonbaert clearly had had enough. In a plainly worded letter in last Friday’s Sun, Schoonbaert defended the RHA and called instead for constructive criticism.

On Wednesday of this week, Decter provided a new manifesto in a letter to the editor.

For those in our community who attended Decter’s public presentations of years past, many of his recommendations were familiar; reduce the number of managers; build a medical school; eliminate the RHA system itself; and elect rather than appoint board members.

As an aside, I’m intrigued by NDP royalty like Decter blasting this NDP government’s health-care system. Decter and his wife, Mayor Shari Decter Hirst, are Brandon’s most prominent NDP members. The mayor was a recipient in the past of NDP patronage with her appointment as head of MPI’s board.

Also, calling out the government so close to an election is a gutsy call, especially since Brandon East NDP MLA Drew Caldwell boasts so often about his government’s performance on health care.

But returning to my topic today, we must examine and, where appropriate, build upon the framework of Decter’s bare-bones ideas.

For example, he recommends eliminating the RHA system and states "… a new system has to be brought in."

Can we examine concrete examples of provincially run, health-care systems that provide more efficient service and higher-quality care, particularly at a lower cost? If so, then we need our medical and efficiency experts to study them immediately and copy their best practices.

Decter argues the deconstruction of RHAs and determining their replacement should be "… a central issue in the upcoming provincial election." I agree. It is my belief that the NDP inherited a trial idea introduced by the Progressive Conservatives under former premier Gary Filmon and has failed to adopt any new innovations.

I’m not completely sold on the medical school idea. In principle it sounds fine, but the realities are much more complicated.

As the University of Manitoba’s medical school is the lowest-ranked program in Canada according to Maclean’s magazine annual review, what makes us believe Brandon’s med school would be better?

I’d support the U of M in reserving more spots for rural students — I believe this to be a cheaper and more realistic option.

Elected boards? Do we have evidence the performance of the RHA’s appointed board is worse than, for example, the Brandon School Division’s elected board? We’re talking about a small issue as long as the province controls the purse strings and determines the mandates.

Decter states RHA board appointees toe the government’s line, and thus should be removed. I’m fine as long as this logic equally applies to MPI, Manitoba Hydro and down the line. Some of these boards look like the Kremlin on May Day.

Decter makes strong points about openness, staff health and morale.

I’ve attended the hospital several times in the last few years. The service I received was excellent. On occasion I had to wait when more serious cases took precedence. That’s how it should work.

The doctors, nurses, technicians and administrative staff are first-rate. In fact, I cannot be more positive in my feelings about the people who work in our hospital. I applaud their commitment to our community. Rather than focus on negatives, I find favour with Schoonbaert and hope that we can move forward with positive input.

If Decter’s plans can help improve our health-care system, let’s consider their merits and proceed where appropriate.

Unfortunately, there’s an animosity between Decter and the organization. Hence, we need outside experts to review his ideas and judge their efficacy.

Our health-care system must provide an infinite number of services, to an aging population, with a declining tax base and little prospect of greater revenues. If the task sounds daunting, it truly is.

On a completely different matter, I am aghast at the ill-considered decisions by several RCMP officers in their indifferent treatment of the woman in the throes of a dangerous childbirth. Rather than helping her, her husband and unborn child, these officers instead chose to ticket them (twice!) for speeding on their way to the emergency room.

The officers involved could have taken so many positive actions including transferring the woman to a squad car for a high speed transit to the hospital. Instead, they both took the worst strategy possible.

Being a police officer is a tough career, but since when did common sense and compassion stop being part of the job?

When incidents like this occur, all police suffer an unfortunate loss of respect in the eyes of the community.

» Kerry Auriat is a lifelong Brandon resident and a partner in a local brokerage firm.