The Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is leaving some workers waiting to be paid, according to a memo leaked to the NDP.On Wednesday, Opposition Leader Carla Beck and Health Critic Vicki Mowat released a memo sent to SHA physicians August 13. Although the sender name was blanked out, the letter's contents indicate it was from someone in the SHA.The letter acknowledged "delays in physician payments" for "a small number of physician invoices" and said problems with AIMS were the cause. The letter apologized for the "inconvenience" and the "stress and pressures" not being paid may have caused."Our Finance colleagues have been working tirelessly to troubleshoot the issues that caused this unexpected situation. An AIMS physician task team is currently working hard to resolve current and future barriers," the letter added.The letter asked any doctor that hadn't been paid within two weeks of submitting an invoice to contact physician services at the SHA, but said AIMS was still a good idea."Moving to one provincial system will allow us to standardize and regularize invoicing procedures and payment timing across the province. We thank you for your patience and understanding as the teams work through these system changes."In a statement to Western Standard issued Wednesday afternoon Mark Anderson, CEO of 3sHealth and member of the AIMS Executive Steering Committee, said the rollout "caused some frustration for end users and employees" but that those responsible "are highly committed to resolving the remaining issues as soon as possible." He added AIMS was replacing "80 aging, obsolete and unconnected information technologies with one seamless, modern, secure system that is essential for administering health care."Beck was less gracious towards the problem.“Stuff like this is the reason we have some of the worst rates of healthcare worker retention in Canada. After 17 years, this tired and out-of-touch government can’t even get the basics right and pay our people on time,” said Beck. “It’s time to get Saskatchewan out of last place on healthcare. It’s time for a change.”The NDP said that doctors, nurses, autism interventionists, and other healthcare workers, have not been paid on time due to the faulty AIMS platform. According to an NDP press release, the healthcare workers who leaked the letter say that the late payments have affected doctors in all Saskatoon emergency rooms, lowering morale and worsening chaos. They said for some emergency room doctors, AIMS is the final straw that has them considering leaving the province or cutting back their work hours. The Sask. Party government maintains that the re-launch of AIMS software has been a “success overall”, despite missing wages and the cost of the program tripling from $86 million to an estimated $240 million.Mowat called the problem “an ArriveCAN-level fiasco" and said the public deserves answers.“If someone in the private sector went three times over budget and still didn’t deliver, they wouldn't be patting themselves on the back. They’d be looking for work," Mowat said.The Official Opposition is calling on the Sask. Party government to follow the Provincial Auditor’s recommendation (chapter 8, section 4.3) to investigate the AIMS fiasco.Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 5430 complained about AIMS in a press release July 29, saying the platform had been "riddled with issues for years."In light of ongoing functionality and payroll issues, CUPE 5430 is demanding a plan to fix the failing AIMS payroll system and ensure health care workers are being properly compensated, as many are missing hundreds of dollars on their paycheques," the press release read.AIMS was expected to be operational by May 2021. The first roll-out did not take place until November 2022 and was cancelled due to widespread functionality issues. "Since AIMS was recently re-launched, dozens of CUPE health care workers reporting missing hours on their paycheques."
