The Saskatchewan NDP wants to see amendments made to the Public Interest Disclosure Act to protect health care employees in the province who want to voice concerns.
This comes after a “hush memo” from September written by the Saskatchewan Health Authority warning frontline workers to not speak to the media, their licensing body or outside agencies without getting approval from the SHA first.
Health Minister Jim Reiter said the recent coverage of this memo by the media will push the government to look into the possibility of this legislation.
“I think it gives us an opportunity to have a discussion right now about if we add them to legislation or not,” he explained. “If it makes sense, we’ll absolutely do it.”
NDP Deputy Leader Nicole Sarauer said the amendments will support the growing number of employees who are wanting to share concerns but are suffering from a “culture of fear” created by the government.
She feels the ministry has failed to explain why it makes sense to encourage employees to essentially circumvent freedom of information laws and change or leave items out of meeting minutes.
“[Employees] care about the work they do, they care about their patients and they are working really hard with the resources they are given, but they’re afraid of the retribution they may receive from this government.”
A second memo was sent out on Thursday morning by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Susan Shaw to clarify that the SHA does not have a policy or ever had the intent to restrict staff or physicians to their right of free speech.
Dr. Shaw was on hand at the legislature saying it’s important for the authority to create clarity in this situation since there is some misinterpretation from outside the organization regarding the purpose of the original memo.
“It’s really to create consistency and as a support to our physician leaders, so we know when they are writing and when they are communicating, they are doing it in a way that actually doesn’t create this type of confusion.”
Sarauer believes the new memo is an attempt by the SHA to backtrack from the first memo, adding that it does not ease the situation enough to have employees be comfortable since it still encourages physicians to not speak to their own licensing body.
She hopes Minister Reiter will immediately rectify the gap in the whistleblower legislation.
