By Sheri Monk

Awarded Citizen of the Year by the town of Leader for 2009, Bill Clary is no stranger to volunteerism, or activism. In 2007, he ran against Wayne Elhard in the provincial election under the Green party banner and in 2008, he ran for the national Green Party against Conservative David Anderson. But now, he is leading the charge in Leader to buck the rigid rules and regulations of the healthcare system. Rules he believe are causing the temporary closure of his hometown hospital.

“If we go back to the beginning I think the value of the public meeting that we had, it was an opportunity for folks to express themselves a little bit and vent a little bit of frustration. But out of that meeting, I think there’s a recognition that Cypress Health Region doesn’t have the ability to resolve this issue. And so that’s why we thought it was important to go to the next level of people who were responsible for how the health region operates. And that’s why we put out a call for folks to call the government and get their attention,” Clary explained.

Three call-to-action flyers have been distributed within the community, providing the phone numbers of government representatives and health-related agencies. It is unknown how many emails and phone calls have gone out from Leader and area in the days since the May 27 public meeting, but Clary says even though the situation caught the ear of CTV Regina, the provincial government has yet to respond.

“We have been unsuccessful in getting the attention of the government. Our emails and phone calls have not produced anything that looks like a meeting. And because we haven’t been able to get action from the government, we thought we would put a call out to some other members of the legislative assembly,” Clary said, adding a call was placed to the Official Opposition, the NDP.

The most recent flyer announced a meeting to be held June 8 at the Leader Friendship Centre with NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter and NDP health critic Judy Junor.

“We’re hoping that the interest from these two might bring the government to the table as well,” Clary said.

As well, a representative from the College of Physicians and Surgeons is willing to come to Leader to explain how and why the regulations pertaining to physicians are applied.

“We want to investigate how the SMA (Saskatchewan Medical Association) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, how that fits together. Part of our work now is for us as a community to understand how the healthcare system works. We’ve left that in the hands of the Cypress Health Region, but because they’ve dropped the ball, we have to take some responsibility for educating ourselves. And then, we have to try to apply pressure wherever we feel there’s blockage in the system,” Clary said.

The short-term goal, according to Clary, is to find a means by which internationally-trained medical graduates can be evaluated to practise medicine if they are not from an institution approved to challenge the CAPE exams.

“Why can’t we be fast-tracking these people to get them up and running?”