The Chair and Vice-chair of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority held a press conference this afternoon, hoping to de-fuse the explosive revelations that have exposed their officials as misleading the public about the death of Brian Sinclair in the Health Sciences Centre emergency room last September.
By the time the short 30 minute session was over, Dr. John Wade and Mr. Alan Fineblit were in search of headache medication and the nearest exit.
The razor-sharp insight of reporters such as CTV's Kelly Dehn (who broke the story last September), Jen Skerritt of the Free Press (who today revealed that Health Minister Theresa Oswald had known since October, that the WRHA official version of the man's treatment was false), and Tom Brodbeck of the Winnipeg Sun, proved that the WRHA's tangled web could be unwound and laid bare.
Reporters have not been fooled by the braintrusts' talking points (i.e - they're not playing the blame game), bureaucrat-speak (Dr. Brock Wright's earlier claim "at no point was he engaged with the triage desk in any way") and earnest excuses ( Wright "mis-spoke" during a media event last week, although we then learned it wasn't the only time).
Between Skerritt's story, the WRHA's weasel-worded statement, and the clarifications extracted by reporters at the presser, new and important details have emerged that raise even more questions about who knew what and when, despite the WRHA's desire to limit the flow of information for oh, 2 to 3 years -- until an inquest finally takes place.
* The Administrative Review found Sinclair was delivered to the triage line after all and "an error was made in indicating he didn't".
* Health Minister Theresa Oswald requested the WRHA release the review to the public, but an unnamed lawyer told them to wait till it came out at the inquest.
* Sinclair was not triaged (an abandoned technical excuse for his being neglected that was discredited), but he was spoken to by a triage aid- em, clerk -- (the Board seemed to decide either term applies, but no one has a provided the media with a job description for either job yet.)
* Something was written down on a clipboard by the aid/clerk, but the WRHA has no idea what it was, or where it went.
* The triage aid "has no recollection of that encounter".
* "To the best of (Fineblit's) knowledge", the note Sinclair carried from the referring Health Action Centre doctor was found on his body when his expired corpse was finally noticed.
* Regardless of whether he had spoken to staff or not, and contrary to the alleged protocol espoused by Dr. Wright that the system relied on people approaching the triage desk so that they can be placed in a queue, Fineblit insisted "once he walked through the door, we have ownership of Mr. Sinclair and are responsible (to get him the care he was seeking)".
* "We have not found anybody to be disciplined", and "we have not found any conduct that was deserving of sanction but many (staff) made mistakes."
* The board executives- Wade and Fineblit, only viewed the video for the first time this morning and saw only 5 minutes of it.
* They have no idea how much of the 34 hours of survillance video Wright saw last Thursday, before he finally admitted that Sinclair had interacted with staff manning the desk but left out the part about his vomiting and still being ignored by medical staff.
* They had no idea that Wright had claimed last September that Sinclair had not approached the triage desk; when pressed by reporters with - drats! memories and notes, they conceded that Wright "misspoke twice", last September and again last week.
* Wright '"had no rational reason to mislead".
* Despite CEO Dr. Brian Postl's claim on CJOB last Friday that access to the video had been limited to 2 human resources officials, lawyers and Dr. Wright to ensure the tape was not tampered with, today neither Wade nor Fineblit could say how many people have actually seen the tape or when or what parts.
* Wright mis-spoke because " he had not been been at HSC for some time and it was sometime since he familiarized himself with the file", when he nonetheless attempted last week to dispute the findings of chief medical examiner Dr. Balachandra that A) Sinclair was seen on tape in line at the triage desk, B) that onlookers were ignored when they tried to get Sinclair help, and C) that the WRHA's earlier version of events was patently false and absurd.
* The Board of Directors was unanimous in supporting Postl and Wright.
* Even though the "the board does not know the full story", they are the ones to be held responsible.
* The WRHA honchos refused Brodbeck's request to meet for two hours to answer questions and insisted "the worst possible thing is for bits of information to come out" (even though that is what they had accomplished with their presser), and that we should all wait for the inquest.
For a synopsis of media coverage prior to today, please go to http://newman-myleftnut.blogspot.com/2009/02/whra-brown-envelopes-and-manslaughter.html
Conspicuous by their silence this morning about Oswald misleading the legislature (by never correcting the impression she gave the House that Sinclair was not anywhere near the triage desk), was CJOB.
In the course of 3 hours of morning programming, including one hour of open lines with Premier Gary Doer, the subject of Sinclair's death, Theresa Oswald, or the WRHA's cover up, was not mentioned even once.
We discovered that CJOB's reticience to criticize HSC staff for their handling of Sinclair's doomed ER visit or report that Theresa Oswald had misled the Legislature, may be connected to a conflict between their responsibility as a news leader, and the presence of GM Garth Buchko on the HSC Foundation Board of Directors alongside former Free Press editor Nicholas Hirst.
Today on our show, Conservative leader Hugh McFadyen said that he would fire Postl and Wright if he were Health Minister, and would release the Administrative Review immediately after excising the names of staff to protect their privacy rights. The opposition is united on those points, as Liberal leader Dr. Jon Gerrard set out the same stance yesterday on TGCTS.
On Wednesday, Kelly Dehn of CTV Crimewatch will join us at 4.10 PM and has even more about the WRHA's peculiar definition of "transparency"; and we'll have more about their brown envelope addiction, our continuing search for the WRHA conflict of interest policy, plus your emails and calls.
(A reminder that on Friday at 5.05 PM, Councillor Grant Nordman will explain his concerns about Mixed Martial Arts competitions being allowed in Winnipeg.)
