The Nerve! Saskatchewan private clinic director resigns

LeftWords
Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Medical Director of Saskatchewan's new for-profit surgical clinic has resigned. It turns out he is ALSO the head of the Surgery Department at Regina General Hospital -- and has been for the last 11 years.

The brains behind the Health Region sees no conflict of interest.

DUH!

But having the Director wear two hats in this situation is an obvious conflict of interest, Suzanne Posyniak, a spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, told the CBC..

"How can you be responsible for ensuring that the hospital is doing the maximum number of surgeries in house, fully using all of its own infrastructure, and at the same time managing a for-profit clinic that needs business from the region to turn a profit?" Posyniak said.

"You could tell this story to anyone and they would roll their eyes and think 'Duh … of course this is a problem,'" Posyniak said.

With the Health Authority denying a conflict of interest in such an obvious case, I have to wonder if there are not more conflicts.


The private clinic still plans to start surgeries in February.