Write Your Own Letter-Form Below

Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 5:17 AM
Subject: Letter to Minister of Health

Here is a form letter that we are asking people to sign and send on
to the minister of health. This doesn't preclude people writing their own
letters, or adding their own comments to this one. But we want to swamp the
minister in the next couple of days with this letter. Maureen MacDonald's
email is health.minister@gov.ns.ca I have attached the letter as a MS Word
document, or you can just cut and paste from the letter below. Please ask
people to sign their own name at the bottom. Could you please pass this on
to all your email contacts.
Thanks,

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,