The Board of Directors of the Sunrise Health Region should probably give some consideration to taking some courses in how to maintain staff morale, because frankly they have shown they don't have a clue about doing that.
If there is one thing even the lay people in the general public know, it's that those in the health profession are facing something of a crisis. In most areas staffing is stretched to the max, meaning long hours, and given the natural pressures of dealing with emergencies, upset families,and the potential of death on a daily basis, morale is something always in need of bolstering.
We've heard that from Doctors, most recently Dr. Phillip Fourie, who sits on a new community collaborative which was launched in June to formulate strategies to attract and retain physicians and other health care professionals to Yorkton, noted the stress doctors feel.
At the time Fourie said the shortage makes it more difficult to retain existing doctors because the workloads can be daunting, and the hours long. While not an immediate answer to the shortage, the collaborative does offer existing doctors hope there is some "light at the end of the tunnel" in terms of finding new doctors to alleviate the situation.
Nurses also deal with stresses, and long hours, and issues of morale.
Enter the Sunrise Board, who have deemed it appropriate to start charging employees, physicians, and contracted workers for parking at the hospital in Yorkton.
Now one can only imagine how that decision has gone over at the water cooler at the hospital in regards to morale, and in dealing with management.
The parking fee will be only $0.15 an hour, but that's 24 a month. Over the course of a year that's $288 taken from hospital staff, or what in essence is a cut in pay of nearly $300 a year, something which is never going to go over well with staff.
The reason the Board is using for the change is that it is part of a plan to address a $2.8 million shortfall in its budget this year.
For some quick math, with approximately 400 employees results in $120,000, or about three per cent of the debt being recovered.
Is that four per cent worth damaging staff morale, and to strain the relationship between staff and management? Would five per cent?
Yorkton This Week asked that question on our website poll this past week, and more than 60 per cent of respondents said the decision to charge for parking was not a good idea.
The math certainly doesn't support the decision when weighed against keeping staff happy. It's hard to retain health professionals as it is. Do we need to alienate those professionals by picking their pockets for $288 extra dollars?
It wouldn't seem to be an idea that holds enough merit to have ever gone beyond the discussion phase at the Board level.
