Debates of October 18, 2006 (day 10)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services with regard to the statement I made and conversations I had with the Minister. Mr. Speaker, I am fully aware of the fact that as much as possible, we do not want to be sitting here talking about management and operations issues. That is not my intention to do micro-managing or anything like that. I am asking questions in the interest of maintaining the level of health care services that we do have and we cannot deliver the programs in health care without an acute care facility like the Stanton Territorial Hospital or all the employees who work within that.

It’s very important for me to raise these issues with the hope that the Minister and the management will listen and pay attention to these issues and address them. The Minister is well aware of these issues. Could the Minister indicate to us what he has done since our conversations with him yesterday? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Miltenberger.

Return To Question 113-15(5): Operational Issues At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I have done, as Members are aware, as the honourable Member is aware, as is the Member for Kam Lake, I took notes on the issues that were raised to me. Some of them are labour relations, some of them are health and safety issues, about a page. I went from their office down to my office and I got on the speaker phone with the deputy minister. I went through the issues with him and talked about those issues and get together the information that we have to, to be able to speak to those issues. We are starting to look at the response. Some of the issues will probably require more detail, some of the labour relations ones. But, very clearly, we are very concerned and interested about the quality of care at Stanton and want to work with the Members and the general public, as well, to make sure we maintain the high levels of services that exist there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 113-15(5): Operational Issues At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, the deputy minister of Health just recently came from there. There must be issues he’s aware of. I would think that the Minister would be well aware of this. My belief in this regard is that the regular reporting channel may not be the way to find out and address some of these issues. We are talking about very long-term employees, nurses, maintenance workers, front-line workers, leaving in droves because they feel very frustrated about the working conditions and lack of their ability to have input into the process. I would like to ask the Minister, aside from having the deputy minister and CEO looking at these issues, would he be willing to send an independent person to go in there? I don’t want a long-term strategy or consultant’s report, but would somebody look at the toxic working situation and see if we could come up with a set of workable short list of recommendations that we could address right away?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 113-15(5): Operational Issues At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member makes some very sweeping statements. She indicated in her Member’s statement she met with six people at her constituency meeting. Stanton has over 500 employees. While I recognize there are employee concerns out there, very clearly we also have, for the most part, a facility that is running very well. What I am prepared to offer the Member is if the Member is interested as a chair of the Social Programs committee, I would be happy to set up a full briefing for the committee and bring in the deputy minister, we could bring in the folks from Stanton. We can work through the issues that have been raised, some of which are very sweeping. There is reference to some very specific labour issues which need more detail on to be able to address through those appropriate processes. Very clearly, we are more than willing to do that. I am not prepared at this point to bring in outside individuals to do something. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 113-15(5): Operational Issues At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you I can pick up the phone anytime and talk to the deputy or CEO or the Minister. That’s not the level of response I am looking for when we are dealing with issues like this in the House. Mr. Speaker, I think he shouldn’t be taking lightly when at least 23 people between Mr. Ramsay and I, and there are other Members…We have had dozens and dozens of employees at Stanton Hospital raising the same issues. I do not jump at one person calling me until I verify the information. I am telling you, the Minister has got to be aware. There is a serious condition happening and I believe it can only be done by an independent look at what is going on. Could I ask the Minister, when is the last time -- and I am really surprised that he doesn’t have an answer in 24 hours because I think if he wanted to, he could have it -- he looked at how many people are leaving the hospital, what was the length of their stay and what are the reasons why they are leaving? When is the last time he looked at that, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 113-15(5): Operational Issues At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have four pages of some of the responses of some of the issues we talked about in terms of the chemotherapy, the staffing concerns, the job evaluation appeals, the strategic plans. I haven’t been sitting idly by and I just didn’t make a general request to the deputy. Yes, the deputy used to be the CEO of Stanton. Yes, he is aware of a lot of the issues. However, the Members talked to me and made a number of sweeping statements about labour relations issues. There is a whole number of appeal processes. If they want me to pursue specific cases, then I can do that, but I would need more detail. If they are just opposed to the process or the classification, then we can have that debate. We monitor on a regular basis and I would be more than happy to give the whole raft of information we have on staffing, vacancies, exit interviews, length of service to look at. There are different vacancy rates depending on the type of profession, but very clearly we have a very full team monitoring all the time the work that’s being done. If the Member is also implying that somehow I shouldn’t be believing what the deputy is telling me or what the CEO is telling me and there are some other real facts out there, then I would have to disagree because I have every confidence, clearly, in the management of the CEO and the deputy and the work they do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final supplementary, Ms. Lee.

Supplementary To Question 113-15(5): Operational Issues At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I might remind the government that this is exactly what we were told when we had issues with the correctional centre. I am telling you right now that I am not suggesting that the Minister should not accept what the deputy ministers are saying. What I am saying is I don’t believe they are getting all the information they need to get from the front-line workers. I would like to ask a very specific question because there are a lot more questions here that I am prepared to pursue over the next two and a half weeks. I would like to ask the Minister, not just looking at the vacancy numbers, when is the last time he inquired as to who is leaving the hospital, what was their length of stay and why? Is there any mechanism in place for the Minister, deputy minister or CEO to know who is leaving and why? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Mr. Miltenberger.

Further Return To Question 113-15(5): Operational Issues At The Stanton Territorial Hospital

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that information is available and collected through the HR system. We monitor that on a regular basis.