Gov’t unkind to health employee
It never ceases to amaze how unkind politicians can be to each other ... or even to those employees perceived as political threats. Conversely, it never ceases to amaze how kind politicians can be, as well.
A couple of recent health incidents demonstrate the very unkind and kind nature of this business.
Let us begin with the way Rural and Remote Health Minister Greg Ottenbreit handled the tragic circumstances of Sara Bucsis-Gunn — a young mother stuck with $7,000 in ambulance bills incurred prior to the death of her seven-yearold daughter, Leandra, two years ago.
Leandra’s congenital medical condition produced seizures. The ambulance trips became so costly Bucsis-Gunn purchased a blow-up mattress for her van so she could transport Leandra herself to avoid more unaffordable bills.
After her case was raised by NDP leader Cam Broten in the assembly last month, Bucsis-Gunn got in contact with Ottenbreit. What emerged is the nowinfamous comment from Ottenbreit that Bucsis-Gunn should hold steak night fundraisers to cover her ambulance bills.
On the surface — or at least, as portrayed by Broten and the NDP — it sounds exceedingly callous that a minister would tell a grieving mother she should fundraise for what Bucsis-Gunn legitimately argued were necessary medical expenses for her family.
But Ottenbreit likely deserved the benefit of the doubt as his remark came at the end of an extensive hour-long phone conversation with Bucsis-Gunn (who, herself, made the conversation publicly available.)
The minister shared his grief over losing to cancer his own five-year-old son, Braden, 15 years ago. Only at the end did Ottenbreit suggest the community fundraiser.
Admittedly, it was wrong for Ottenbreit to not recognize Bucsis-Gunn’s special circumstances, but it was also unfair for Broten to suggest it was done out of thoughtlessness or insensitivity.
It may be a bad policy, but that doesn’t make Ottenbreit a bad man.
Always trying to suggest your opponent is a bad person is a big problem with today’s politics.
There again, there may be times when politicians deserve the bad reputation they have — or so one suspects after learning that Peter Bowden, a continuing care aide at Saskatoon’s Oliver Lodge, has been suspended with pay after publicly complaining about the quality of care in his workplace.
The government insisted Bowden’s suspension arises from a “series of complaints” against Bowden from co-workers and stressed they had nothing to do with him raising concerns at the legislature.
Well, NDP MLA Trent Wotherspoon in Tuesday’s question period — having evidently seen the workplace complaints against Bowden — said six of the eight complaints against Bowden came after the NDP raised his name in the legislature and the other two occurred just days before, when he expressed concerns to management about patient care. There were no allegations of assault, said Wotherspoon, contrary to what was alleged by government.
Most significantly, however, it was not Wotherspoon who first made the charges public. The NDP correctly noted that it was Premier Brad Wall’s chief of operations and communications, Kathy Young, who sent out emails to various media outlets Monday morning outlining the unproven allegations.
That Wall’s office would find it necessary to circulate an employee’s record — breaching his privacy in the course of doing so — after he came forward to criticize government policy seems more than a little strange. But Health Minister Dustin Duncan said he found nothing strange about that.
What he did find strange is that Bowden — who had been publicly posting his concerns on Facebook before going to the NDP — would ask that there be no repercussions against him for speaking out. Others might have found it prophetic.
Duncan also didn’t find it strange that Bowden had an 11-year clean-employee record (Bowden said there was one 2010 incident, since purged) until he spoke out last month. Again, the minister stressed this was not about intimidating employees from speaking out, but about Bowden’s work record.
And the minister hinted the media doesn’t yet know everything. Evidently, Duncan does, but, strangely, he said he has no concern about any other health employee’s work records, just Bowden’s.
Sometimes politicians don’t deserve their reputation for being unkind.
But sometimes they do.