To the Minister of Health

The following letter was sent today to the Minister of Health, following the public meeting in Freeport on Saturday, Nov 28th. Andy

Honourable Maureen MacDonald

Minister of Health, Province of Nova Scotia

Veith House

3115 Veith Street

Halifax, Nova Scotia

B3K 3G9

November 30, 2009

Dear Honourable Minister,

The residents of the Islands and the Digby Neck are shocked by the recent actions of the Southwest Nova District Health Authority (DHA) in the matter of Karen Snider. The DHA actions totally contradict your earlier indication to the community that a positive resolution would be reached.

In good faith, and based on discussions with you, and those of your Deputy Minister, The Islands’ Health Liaison Committee and the residents of the area expected that Ms. Snider would be reinstated as nurse practitioner for the area. We respected your request for patience and time to work through the necessary processes. You had indicated that, while the DHA and not Department of Health had primary responsibility for resolving the situation given the employer/employee nature of the issue, you remained committed to a positive outcome.

The document prepared by the DHA and presented to Ms. Snider for her signature as a condition of her reinstatement is slanderous in its nature and contains errors and misinformation, which would make it impossible for anyone to sign. That, together with the DHA’s intention to publish it in three newspapers and post it on the door of the community clinic, further reinforces the incompetence and bullying management style of the DHA. One must question whether the DHA really wanted to reach an agreement with Ms. Snider.

Following this handling of this matter, who would ever want to work as a Nurse Practitioner or another health professional under the DHA? This at a time when the country and the province faces a dearth of doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and other health professionals. One wonders what leadership and competences exists within the DHA to manage issues such as doctor recruitment retention, keeping ER’s open, etc.

The DHA’s mismanagement of a simple employer/employee issue is effectively destroying a health care model which has been recognized provincially and nationally as a model for a collaborative practice health care and has left the 1500 residents in this area without health care. Minister, as you yourself stated in the provincial legislature on September 22nd, the health care model here “is a fine example of the kinds of innovation that we can bring to our health care system, and the use of both paramedics and nurse practitioners in that area is something that we will seriously look at expanding into other parts of the province.” With the recent dismissal of Ms. Snider effective last week, your hands are no longer tied, as the employee and employer relationship no longer exists. This clears the way for you, as Minister of Health for the Province of Nova Scotia, to resolve this urgent matter and reinstate Ms. Snider.

Ms. Snider has the complete support of the community. During her time as nurse practitioner, she saw an average of 24 patients per day, compared to six patients as per her predecessors. At no time has the DHA indicated that the dismissal of Ms. Snider had anything to do with her medical or clinical skills.

Minister, this community has lost all confidence in the leadership of the Chief Executive Officer of the DHA. We are certain that you do not support the lack of leadership demonstrated by Blaise MacNeil and his senior management team in the handling of the matter of Karen Snider.

We kindly ask you to do the following:

1. Immediately reinstate Ms. Snider, as Nurse Practitioner

2. Meet with the residents of the Islands and Digby Neck in Freeport during the week of November 30th, 2009.

3. Direct your Deputy Minister and Senior Officials to work with the community to develop and implement a new reporting relationship for this particular geographic area to an authority that is more farsighted, creative and committed to the health of the residents of this area.

Kind regards,

Jim Thurber, Warden, Municipality of Digby

Andy Moir, Commissioner, Village of Freeport, Chair, Islands Health Liaison Committee

Cc: Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health

Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defense and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway

Premier Darrell Dexter

Greg Kerr, MP West Nova

Harold Theriault, MLA Digby-Annapolis

Janet Hazelton, President of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union