Health Minister Asked to Probe Keewatin Yatthe

Health Minister Asked to Probe Keewatin Yatthe

Friday, December 10, 2004 at 15:13

The Saskatchewan Medical Association is asking the province’s health minister to investigate the practices of a regional health authority in northern Saskatchewan.

The SMA has taken issue with Keewatin Yatthe’s termination of the contract of four doctors in La Loche.

The medical association is calling on health minister John Nilson to use his powers under the Regional Health Services Act to launch and inquiry into Keewatin Yatthe’s human resource administrative practices.

SMA President Dr. Brian Geller says his association needs a clear explanation of why the health authority took the steps it did.

However, one of the doctors that had his contract terminated, Dr. Vaughan Nicholls, is now working in the community under a different contract and is defending the health authority.

Nicholls is upset that Keewatin Yatthe and the entire North are getting a bad reputation because of the SMA’s objections.

Nicholls has worked in La Loche for 16 years and says he’s learned to trust the health authority’s board. He says the board wouldn’t have made this move without good reason.