The best way to cure the ailing health-care system is to find out where the money is going right now, a Weyburn audience was told by Saskatchewan Party leader Elwin Hermanson on Tuesday morning, after listening to a litany of problems from area residents.

The party leader and Weyburn-Big Muddy candidate Brenda Bakken heard comments and stories from a crowd of around 60 people at the El Rancho banquet room, following which the two candidates laid out their campaign platform regarding health care.

"We're all asking, where is the money going? We are told almost daily by the NDP we have the best health care anywhere. I want to ask you if you think we have the best health care anywhere. I think we've heard the answer to that If we form the government, we will ask doctors, nurses and the public to help us find the way to make the health system work," said Bakken.

The $1.9 billion budget should be enough to run the health care system, added Hermanson, but far too much of it is going into administrative costs instead of front-line workers, and this is where the health-care audit would focus.

Speaking to reporters following the forum, Hermanson said, "We'll give the provincial auditor the resources necessary to investigate and make the recommendations to government to move as many of the dollars as we can afford from administration into patient care. Everyone tells us there's far too many administrative offices."

He denied this would make the auditor-general into a minister of health, as he would only be looking at how the budgeted dollars are currently being spent.

Asked what percentage of the budget is now going to administration, he said he has asked this question but has not been able to get a straight answer.

Commenting on the health care issue, Liberal candidate Joe Weisgerber said he doesn't understand the point of having a health-care audit as the Saskatchewan Party is proposing.

"I'm really not sure what he hopes to gain from that. We know there's no money out there that's available. I agree we have to look at the administrative costs. We need more money for front-line workers," he said in an telephone interview.
Reaction to poll

The first polling numbers of the election were released on Monday, but none of the candidates we talked to on Tuesday were very worried about the numbers.

The poll, commissioned by the Regina Leader-Post, puts the NDP at the top with 49 per cent of decided voters, the Saskatchewan Party second with 30 per cent and Liberals third with 19 per cent. The numbers change when looking at rural areas, where the Saskatchewan Party seems to hold the lead at 49 per cent, the NDP has 32 per cent and Liberals are at 17.

The undecided voters stand at 26 per cent, and eight per cent refused to say how they would vote.

Asked if this shows an urban-rural split, Bakken didn't think this was the case.

"The farming issue is high on people's minds in the area. This is a rural constituency, yet Weyburn is an urban centre," she said, adding the poll numbers won't affect how she will continue with her campaign. She noted their platform has been out for over a year, and they're going to continue with that platform.

Sask. Party leader Hermanson thinks the poll does show an urban-rural split, but added their own polling shows stronger numbers for urban centres than this poll is showing.

"The undecided group is primarily comprised of people who were formerly committed to the NDP," he said, adding this poll doesn't mean they won't have a fight for rural seats, as there will be some very close fights in some rural constituencies.

Liberal candidate Weisgerber said he isn't worried about the numbers showing his party sitting in third place.

"I don't see how I can use or not use (the poll numbers). I have to stay focussed on my platform, and hopefully what that does is to change those numbers," he said.

NDP candidate Judy Bradley was unable to be contacted for a comment before presstime.

Health care concerns

Among the stories provided at the forum, Winston Bailey, at one time as a journeyman carpenter at Souris Valley Extended Care Centre, commented, "I couldn't believe a few of the things that are going on there."

He recalled one instance where a request came from a lady to have a new desk built for her office on the administration floor at Souris Valley, despite the large number of desks that are in storage in the facility.

"This lady wanted a new desk, made out of oak. Obviously she knew what strings to pull. We built her that desk, and it cost probably $2,500 for the health board to have it made. Another lady also wanted a desk built for her. This desk was so huge we had to build it in three pieces. This desk, without a word of a lie, cost $4,000 with labour and materials," said Bailey. "The waste is unbelievable out there."

Another instance was the construction of a 12-by-24-foot garage at Pangman's health care centre, for which the labour alone cost $10,000, said Bailey.

Forum emcee Joanne Bannatyne-Cugnet, who is a former nurse, said health-care professionals told her they would have loved to come out to make comments on health care, but didn't out of fear for losing their jobs, a situation which happened in the last election.

"I've found it quite appalling that people are having this feeling again," she said.

A Radville resident, Norma McLeod, commented that the closure of the Plains Hospital was "absolutely ludicrous" as it was closed despite a very strong lobby from southern Saskatchewan residents that the hospital was needed.

McLeod said her daughter was in a serious accident in Regina near the Plains Hospital, and she and her husband were later told by the surgeon who worked on her that if the hospital wasn't located there, the daughter would not have survived the trip to the hospital.

"This sacred cow called medicare is in such a mess, it's going to take a miracle to straighten it out," said McLeod.

Nancy Pulfer told the audience the health district had 230 beds in 1990, and in long-term care alone there have been 100 beds lost, but the savings this should have generated are not evident.

"Where is the money? We're still being told there's no money. There should be a report put out explicitly saying where the money is being spent," she said.

A former administrator at the Weyburn Union Hospital, Dave Kerr, noted that health district board chairman Ernest Elder wrote in a letter-to-the-editor the district saved $1.2 million by cutting management staff.

"What he didn't tell us was how much management staff they hired. I asked what the cost of that staff was I know some of those people who were laid off had to have their replacement waiting at the door," said Kerr, adding he has never received an answer to his questions.

Speaking of the local situation, Bakken said there are only 48 acute-care beds for the South Central Health District, and there were only 30 beds open during the summer. She said the district's three-year plan is to close 45 more beds at Souris Valley, and noted the district is currently funding a study on a proposal to amalgamate with the South East Health District.

"It's not hard to figure out where the hospital is going to go. Our health board is paying for a consultant to do this study," said Bakken, adding that nurses also tell her that work conditions have not changed at all since the ending of the nurses' strike.

Addressing the crowd, Hermanson said his party's platform isn't the flashiest platform but said their commitment to health care is doable. Their position is not to remove the local health district boards as the Liberals are proposing, but to eliminate the government-appointed members and enable the local boards to have more control over how their budget is spent at the local level.