Whistleblower protections to be extended to SHA staff
The government will move Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) employees to the list of those protected by provincial whistleblower law following the leak of a memorandum raising concerns about the organization’s transparency.
Health Minister Jim Reiter says he’ll aim to introduce a bill this spring to widen the Public Interest Disclosure Act’s scope to more than 40,000 SHA staff and physicians. The decision follows a weeklong push from the Opposition NDP over what they said was an attempt to censor health-care workers.
That legislation currently protects employees of ministries and other government institutions from reprisal for flagging abuses of power, but doesn’t apply to SHA workers or employees of municipalities.
“There’s never been a directive from this government, from me or anyone else, trying to muzzle front-line employees or trying to muzzle doctors,” Reiter said. “But if there’s even a perception of that, I think it’s important to send the right message.”
Last week the NDP Opposition revealed what they called a “hush memo” sent to senior doctors warning about “discordant messaging,” including recent comments made to the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the media.
NDP justice critic Nicole Sarauer said her party has become a conduit for health-care workers worried they would be reprimanded for raising issues internally.
“We try to be the voice of their concerns in the legislature, but whistleblower protection is supposed to allow people to come forward without receiving any sort of penalty,” Sarauer said.
Reiter and SHA chief medical health officer Susan Shaw challenged that claim last week, noting existing initiatives to report safety and health concerns within the SHA.
But Reiter said then that he might expand provincial whistleblower protections to SHA employees in light of the recent transition from 12 health regions to one provincial authority.
Saskatchewan Union of Nurses president Tracy Zambory said the memo speaks to a greater issue of practitioners being “afraid to speak out” on issues of concern, something she hears “quite frequently” from her members.
She wants her organization, which represents more than 10,000 registered nurses in the province, and other stakeholders to be consulted before whistleblower protections are expanded.
Saskatchewan Medical Association president Dr. Allan Woo said he was satisfied by a second memo sent by the SHA last week that said it “does not have a policy, nor has the SHA ever had any intent to restrict staff or physicians from exercising their right to free speech.”
That’s “as clear as it can get,” Woo said.
The memo also raised concerns about the SHA’S transparency, as it advised doctors to avoid putting information in meeting minutes “if you do not want to see it in the newspaper,” purportedly out of concern that patients’ personal information could be revealed.
Ronald Kruzeniski, Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner, said it’s good practice for employees to not include personal information in meeting minutes, but agreed with other experts that such information is usually redacted before being released.
“We all strive for a level of transparency in these institutions because they’re spending taxpayer dollars,” Kruzeniski said