Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - March 22, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 Winniw Ohki Macii 2001 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights Manning bows out the announcement that Preston Manning will retire at the end of this year represents a greater loss to Canadian politics than most canadians May who founded the Reform party in was in those Days an easy object of mockery in the press and he seemed to be a card carrying with his bad his oversized spec his bargain basement his Reedy voice and his frail even the idea of a credible political party born out of a feeling of Western alienation left most canadians East of the Manitoba Border sing Manning had an idea and he pursued it it was an idea of a Canada differ ent from what canadians had known in the previous 20 the West did want the West had Felt isolated by the Trudeau Liber als and then betrayed by the Mulroney conserva Tives but mannings Agenda was larger than it included a concept of fiscal responsibility that had been embraced by Ronald Reagan in the United states and Margaret Thatcher in great setting those countries on the Road to eco nomic stability and it took Canada almost another 20 years to catch that it finally did is largely to the credit of yester Day Liberal finance minister Paul Martin said theres no doubt in terms of Preston Man rings economic debt tax reduce that he has made an important contribution to the debate in in Manning largely set the Agenda for the Liberal governments deficit reduction pro As his party his message resonated across the he proved that he had to be taken As he brought the Reform party from a joke in 1987 to official opposition in he forced the country to reconsider its economic priorities and led the Liberal government to steal Many of his Canada is a better country today for mannings great dream was to unite Canadian conservatives across the country in one party that would pose a credible threat to the after his failure to make a breakthrough East of Manitoba in the 1997 he launched the United alter native which culminated in the demise of the Reform party and the creation of the Canadian Manning expected to Lead this new but he publicly accepted the risk he was in the he lost the leadership to Stockwell Day in a bitter contest and the Alliance failed to make the breakthrough in Ontario that Manning had hoped Manning will be missed in parliament and in National he May still contribute to shaping Canadian but now from the he will be by Many in an age when politics and politicians Are regarded with deep cynic it is a rare spectacle to see a political Leader principled enough to let himself be pushed aside so that an idea he believed in might live Canadas cities there is a growing belief that the health of cities is critical to the economic growth of a the United states has done better than Canada Over the past decade in encouraging its cities to those who remember the disaster of the Urban riots and the grim burned out areas of May be surprised at this apparent the fact that Many cities smaller than Winnipeg have Arenas and modern concert Halls or theatre centres that would make Winnipeg americas like its highways and other have been on the mend for some while Canadas have been on the it is this perspective that the report commissioned by Winnipeg senior Federal Cabinet minis Ter Ron Duhamel from former my David Walker takes As its starting it suggests that the american political with More Powers open to the Federal government to intervene in Urban May be a Factor in the stronger growth in the and in cities than has occurred in in the Canada has very successfully developed cities and City Toronto is still a Power the Winnipeg Core area which brought together the three Levels of govern ment and saw the development of North Portage and the is still seen As a Model of co opera that despite Many is is neither in doubt nor at other Canadian cities Are doing but it is the laggards that need the underlying Winnipeg problems is a sense that it is near impossible to put All three Levels of govern ment Money on the table and pick Clear a complicated bureaucracy and political infighting get in the intergovernmental rules and jealousies cannot be allowed to get in the Way of Urban neither can bureaucratic rules work against setting True Duhamel has performed a service by putting priority spending and government cooperation firmly on the now he needs to follow with health cares fatal errors Between 94 and 209 people die due to med ical errors in Winnipeg hospitals each that is out of admissions to the six hos and does not include the bulk of the1 people who visit emergency depart ments at those As a death by medical error is but at the same at least 94 people die annually in Winnipeg hospitals because a healthcare practitioner made a those Are people dying in hospitals when they should have walked out before you say i had no idea and curse your self for blithely walking your child in for that Tonsillectomy kids do sometimes die of Tonsillectomy is or accompanying mom for the hip replacement without asking the doctor about his or her Success rest assured you Are among the few people know How Many patients die unnecessarily in Winnipeg largely because no one if those in charge have the global there not giving them these Are my numbers and i have been waiting a week for information on med ical errors from the health sciences the Boniface and Grace general hospitals and the Winnipeg regional health Grace Hospital compiled but wont release them until everyone else i was told not to hold my that would cause another preventable i have yet to see estimates Given in the area of medical errors is new to this coun though a number of other countries including the United Britain and Australia have had i depth data on this Issue for the estimates i have provided Are based on the study published by the american National Academy of sciences Institute of Medicine in that report looked at two studies one in new York based on 1984 data and one in col Orado and using 1992 the report is described As based on admissions that were not High risk and it relied on Chart which Means they Only looked at errors that were based on those the Institute of medicines report found that Between and deaths occurred due to preventable medical errors in the Annu based on million these numbers vastly under report the num ber of mistakes that Are including those that resulted in measurable harm to the judge Murray in his inquest report on the deaths of 12 children who had heart surgery in 1994 at the health sciences noted that because few mistakes Actu ally bring harm to few Are judge Sinclair found that medical reporting of these and How Hsc acted on them played a huge role in the nine of the toddlers and babies should not have died or could have lived had they been operated on at a larger in the College of physicians and surgeons has taken the Issue on with some Vigour and has produced statistics indicating Between 187 and 416 patients there die Annu ally due to medical there is Little reason to think Canada is different from the United states and certainly no reason to think Mani Toba is different from its says Dennis registrar of the Saskatchewan its shocking in any place when you do the Calcut Saskatchewan responded quickly to the Institute of Medicine it didst have to rely on mathematics because the College of physicians and surgeons by statute gets a report of every death in a Hospital that occurs during a Surgi Cal procedure which is broadly while under or in it reviewed those deaths to come up with its own which Are admittedly Broad but indicate that my estimates fall Short of describing what is probably happening in the province of Mani Toba the Saskatchewan study also found that of the patients admitted to its hospitals in As Many As suffered some kind of Adverse the Cost of these incidents relating to medications May be As much As million studies generally have found that drug errors account for about 20 per cent of mistakes made in Hospi since last weeks column on this Ive received a number of Calls from people who have stories to Tell about mistakes made to them or their loved they All being left out of the denied information or Given it Long after the they found that launching malpractice suits seems the Only Way to wrestle answers out of healthcare practitioners and the Issue of medical errors and disclosure of them is tied tightly to that of informed consent giving patients and their families adequate information not Only about the nature and the risks of procedures but also information about those carrying out the surgery or that Means patients should know How much experience a doctor or surgical team what the Success rate has been and whether the patient would have a measurably better Chance in the hands of another doctor or judge Sinclair report talked about All of health minister David Chomiak says he too wants to improve reporting and analysis of medical errors and the Mea Suring of the outcomes of medical care Gener Chomiak says a retooling of the health department will be carried out in the future to allow that to but first he has to wait for a committees expected april on the recommendations in the Sinclair inquest it is a doctors duty to report mistakes to a As much As it is to ensure informed consent has been there is evidence that patients informed of errors in timely fashion Are less Likely to our near Blind Faith in the medicare system and the professions that support it needs a serious reality until people demand the no Tell culture with in hospitals and those professions will not the undeniable legacy of Bobby Sands this Spring Marks the 20th anniversary of the Irish Republican army hunger an Aston sad watershed in Iris British although i had scarcely known a moment of or even i found this end Lessly fascinating in at the age of notions of injustice Are of is Bobby the first of the Ira prisoners to forsake had memorized entire chapters of the Leon Uris epic novel of and would recite them in the Maze i bought a secondhand copy of i read it and then again that if it want exactly a Complete and scholarly history of the it at least sparked a abiding interest in Ireland and its tangled a group of Irish Republican Sands among demanded political prisoner Sta they wanted the right to not Wear a prison to not do prison to enjoy free association with other to organize their own educational and recreational facile and to have one one letter and one parcel a they were not common Crimi they Sands had already done a previous stint in during which time he had these Privi by the time Sands went Back to jail in 1976 for firearms the special category status had been revoked by the British for these Sands was willing to in prime minister Margaret Thatcher was willing to indulge his and the others desire to do it was a Battle of wills with no if at first it seemed terribly romantic to die for a in the it was just there were gruesome accounts of the effects on hunger strikers bodies fading con comas As the Days at a cer Tain some damage was even if the protester resumed hunger strikes have been used As a Means of protest throughout Irish according to a commemorative hunger strike to starve oneself at the door of another who had wronged you was to Force a reply of Ide for the the one causing the grievance would realize their offer the protester food and beg to be that didst ten strikers would one of the prison Hospital doctors later killed Ive been wondering this week about the legacy of Bobby people still recognize his even in his cause is less Blacka Edwhite to me but i still feel sad when i think of in in those Grainy newspaper he seemed very grownup and Twenty years on i realize that although he was a husband and a Sands was a Young not yet the average age of the hunger strikers was just there Are web Sites devoted to the hunger strikers and their entries from Sands prison diary can be read he have known about internet technology but he might have hoped for such an enduring the the prison where the strike took is closed the Street in front of the British embassy in Tehran is named for several in the last 20 both sides have vowed to put aside guns and the conflict Over Northern Ireland has trans formed itself several As have the play ceasefires have been an agreement has been the peace process this the majority social democratic labour party and sinn the political Wing of the met to discuss an electoral pact which could Lead to Irish nationalists winning More seats at some predict this could cause As much division Between the Catholic and protestant communities As the Sands Campaign there is infighting Over the Sands legacy within the Republican including Sands believe sinn fein is exploiting the memory of Sands for political Sands and his brother Sinars would never have supported anything Short of a United they in the Sands experience precipitated sinn Feins evolution into the political Force it is after was elected to parliament As a sinn fein candidate during his it was a symbolic of he died May after fasting 66 sym Bol or Sands election made him part of the political sinn fein built on its impossible to know what who died for the right to be considered More than a com Mon might make of the current state of but of the 13 surviving hunger strik none has spoken out against the peace Winnipeg free press Winnipeg free press esl 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 129 n0104 2001 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division o Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a members the Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Patrick editor ;