Chris Puglia
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 20/02) - Poor planning by management is being blamed for the ongoing problems at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Aside from poor morale and low staffing levels, an operating review revealed the hospital board has had difficulty monitoring services, assessing risks, measuring goals and developing long range plans.

Acting Stanton board chair Bill Graham would not comment on whether the findings mean the jobs of hospital executives are on the chopping block but he confirmed there is a problem.

"Management has a responsibility to bring recommendations forward to the board," he said. The system isn't working as well as it should be."

Graham spoke on behalf of board chair Larry Elkin who was not available for comment due to a pre-booked vacation to Las Vegas.

Stanton CEO Dennis Cleaver is on a paid week of absence to allow him time to study the report.

The findings in the report, which cost over $100,000, didn't come as a surprise, Graham said.

"Some of the issues that have been made have been concerns of the board for sometime," he said.

The 103-page report outlines a number of shortcomings in hospital management.

These areas include recruitment and retention of staff, training of staff, internal and external communication protocols, leadership and staff morale.

"The results demonstrate that less than 50 per cent of the non-management staff is satisfied or highly satisfied with the leadership effectiveness of the STHA leaders.

"The divergence of views between management and that of other staff is significant and suggests that there is an apparent disconnect between management and staff...The results also suggest a lack of confidence by the staff in the overall effectiveness of their leadership," the report stated.

Graham said those findings are a real concern to the board.

"If the staff aren't on the same page as management, it's difficult for an organization to achieve its objectives," he said.

The report outlines a number of recommendations. These include implementing an internal strategic plan, a recruitment and retention strategy, a communication plan, management and staff training programs and developing a base staffing analysis.

Over the next few weeks the board, the GNWT and members of the health care sector will be reviewing the report.

The GNWT has released a terms of reference that indicates recommendations in the report will be addressed between now and May.

"For a majority of the recommendations, there is no definite completion date.

"There are three different areas we need to work on. There are Stanton issues, system-wide issues and government issues," said Dave Murray, deputy minister of Health and Social Services.

Graham said the board hopes to release a response to the report within the next three weeks.

A copy of the report and the terms of reference can be viewed on the GNWT Department of Health Web site.