Sask. launches review of workplace culture at Regina hospitals amid complaints of conflict, racism

Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health is bringing in two out-of-province consultants to investigate the workplace culture at Regina's hospitals amid complaints of conflict and racism.

The province says two unnamed but "highly respected, experienced medical leaders" — one from Ontario and one from Nova Scotia — have been contracted to carry out the independent external review.

Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill said Monday that there have been allegations of misconduct identified "over the last couple of years," but declined to offer specific examples.

"Certainly there's been allegations of racism, as one example, in the physician community over the last number of years. Certainly that's something that we take very seriously," Cockrill said after the review was announced.

The Official Opposition NDP pointed to an incident it raised last year in the legislature.

In November 2023, the NDP highlighted that 11 doctors — all trained in Africa or east Asia — reported racism and discrimination from hospital leadership, ultimately filing a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.

The complaint alleged management gave sought-after teaching shifts exclusively to white doctors.

"These concerns need to be taken very seriously and we raised these issues a year ago, and so we need to see swift action when complaints like this are taking place," said Saskatchewan NDP health critic Vicki Mowat.

Cockrill stressed that the review is not an investigation of specific physicians but "a review of the entire physician community and culture within the city of Regina."

He said the issues have been long-standing.

The consultants will begin their review by holding virtual interviews with local leaders from the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan, and other members of the local medical community in an attempt to understand the challenges and experiences of those working in Regina hospitals.

Early next year, they'll visit Regina to conduct in-person interviews with local medical staff, assess the current issues, identify the root causes of the problems and provide recommendations to the Ministry of Health and the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

Cockrill said the review will guide short-term and long-term actions to improve workplace culture in Regina.

The review is expected to be completed in the spring of 2025.

Discussions on health-care task force ongoing

Also on Monday, an emergency motion from the NDP to strike a bipartisan health-care task force was defeated.

Cockrill said efforts to create a "patient-focused task force" with the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) and other health-care unions is already underway.

"The people of Saskatchewan have my commitment and this government's commintment, we're going to be engaging directly with those front-line health-care workers," Cockrill said.

SUN has been calling for the creation of a nursing task force since early 2023 and the NDP echoed that call earlier this year. 

The Saskatchewan Party and the NDP both referenced a health-care task force before and during the provincial election campaign. 

Cockrill said he expects the task force could be working by early 2025

Mowat said the government should have acted by now.

"I think it needs to be as soon as possible, and everyone I speak to who is actively in nursing right now is in need of immediate relief," Mowat said.